


Backstory comes back

by Fireflykat



Series: International Relations [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Primeval
Genre: Alpha Aaron Hotchner, Alpha Derek Morgan, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Child Neglect, Crossover, Established Relationship, F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, Forced Insemination, Gang Rape, Genius Connor Temple, Geniuses, Hacker Connor temple, International, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi, Not Beta Read, Omega Connor Temple, Omega Spencer Reid, Past Child Abuse, descriptions of past child abuse, hacker Penelope Garcia, nontraditional omega
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:15:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27339280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fireflykat/pseuds/Fireflykat
Summary: When Connor gets kidnapped under mysterious circumstances, Lester calls the BAU to help. If Gideon never knew anything about his son except his name, would he recognise him if they met?First 2 chapters lots rewritten, third, not too much altered, some minor details changed a bit. Basic plot stays the same.I should mention, that until I finish writing this completely, I may go back and rewrite and add or change things regularly to negate inconsistencies I create as I write. I think I am nearing the end, bit if you have already read it and are coming back as I add chapters, it may be a good idea to reread. Some things may have changed slightly. This goes with my other fic in this series as well.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid, Abby Maitland/Sarah Page, Nick Cutter/Stephen Hart/Connor Temple
Series: International Relations [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997992
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Kidnap!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Primeval Pack](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13431219) by [NeverHadThePlot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverHadThePlot/pseuds/NeverHadThePlot). 



> Set Season 3 of Primeval, Season 2 Criminal Minds (I know that doesn't work canonically but, whatever, I needed Gideon and Stephen - also, Stephen Gideon is a few years younger than Stephen Hart when we learn about him in Criminal Minds, but thats about 4 years before Primeval starts. so they could be about the same age. maybe)

RING!!!! RING!!!!

“Lester,” James Lester said into his mobile, glancing at the clock. 5:30. Who the bloody hell was calling this early?

“Connor’s missing!” Said a familiar Scottish accent over the line. Lester shot up in bed, immediately awake. He could hear the alpha on the other end panicking but trying hard to stay calm. 

“How do you know?” Lester asked quickly, he wasn’t sure he was going to like the answer to this question. 

“Connor is an Omega,” shit, he knew he wouldn’t like the answer. Ok, that’s fine, we can deal with it once we find him again. 

“And his heat started last night” said another familiar male voice. “We finally bonded with him, and he fell asleep, I got up to take a shower and clean Connor up and Nick went out to get milk because we ran out.”

“I was only gone for five minutes,” Nick said, clearly blaming himself. “I got back and opened the door and suddenly felt so dizzy I had to sit down, I went to the couch and passed out. Stephen woke me up five minutes ago.”

“They got me after I had finished my shower and was part way through wiping down Connor. He doesn’t like sleeping covered in cum.” There was a smack on the other end of the line 

“Our bedroom routines aren’t relevant Stephen,” Lester heard Nick say quietly to his partner, 

“I thought it was perfectly relevant.” Stephen said without shame. 

“Moving on,” Lester interrupted smoothly, “Stephen, were you drugged as well?”

“I don’t think so,” the man replied. But I woke up 10 minutes ago, and we left early yesterday because Connor went into heat early. So it couldn’t have happened any later than 19:00.”

“You said it was because he was injured.” Lester sighed. “Are you telling me Connor went into Heat at the anomaly site yesterday?” Lester could hear Stephen and Nick looking at each other on the other end of the phone. 

“Sorry, we didn’t say, Lester,” Stephen said, “Although, to be honest, we thought you knew.”

“It was more for the SFs and Becker than you.” Nick clarified. 

Lester shook his head and rubbed his temples. “Fine, resubmit an accurate copy of the report of what happened at the Anomaly yesterday after we find Connor, got it?” 

He could hear Cutter grumble over the phone. Lester continued, “It is “5:30 now, unless someone hit Stephen with an unusually heavy pipe, it would be difficult to render a person unconscious for 10 and a half hours. What is the state of your house?” 

“Trashed.” Cutter said with remorse

“He is exaggerating.” Stephen said. “Nothing is broken, nothing is missing, but it looks like someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like a robbery.”

“Except someone shredded all the papers on my desk,” Cutter added in, “Dissertations, academic papers, Anomaly research…” 

“Do you think it’s Helen?” Lester asked 

“I don’t know” Nick replied, “Helen is a Beta, she would have no use for an Omega in heat, but she also wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an Omega in heat and Omega not in heat.”

“But if it was Helen,” Stephen asked logically, “why go for Connor? You and I were right there.”

“That’s true,” Cutter replied. “No, Helen is single minded to the point of madness, she wants nothing to do with Omegas. Just anomalies.” 

“So we are back to square one.” Lester said with a sigh. “Ok, I know some Americans who might be able to help. Expert profilers. Let me give them a call.” 

Lester looked back at the clock 5:45 and automatically did the conversion. GST- 5 was where Agent Gideon was. In Washington DC. He had been there a few times when he still traveled for work. It was quite nice. The BAU would need to come to the UK for this one though. 

* * *

RING!!!! RING!!!! RING!!!!

“Gideon” answered a fairly tired voice on the other end of the line

“Sorry to wake you so early, I mean late,” Lester said politely “this is Agent Jason Gideon of FBI’s BAU, correct?” 

“Yes, that’s right, may I ask who is speaking,” said Gideon on the other line, confused by the speech pattern and accent. British, upper class, familiar.

“This is James Lester from the Home Office, we met last time I was in DC, about 5 years ago,” Lester said explaining. 

“Ah, Mr Lester,” Gideon said, timber changing as he placed the voice to a picture in his memory. “it is quite late, what is it I can do for you?”

“I wouldn’t have called this late unless it’s an emergency, but it seems one of my team has gone missing, and we do not have the resources to track him down, as he is normally the one tracking things down.”

“Don’t you have people in the UK who can do that?” Gideon asked “we normally work with law enforcement, and we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.” 

“Unfortunately, what we work with is classified under the secrets act, so we cannot risk any of the London police or MI5 to know about it. We answer to the minister directly.” Gideon’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. This could be interesting.

“Would there be anything else we would need to know?” Gideon asked

“Connor has been hiding the fact that he is an Omega for the past two years, and was taken out of his bed last night after having his mating marks, one mate in the midst of cleaning him up, the other had popped out for some milk. The one with him seems to have been attacked with a heavy object and then drugged, the one who went out was met with an aerosolized drug that made him dizzy and pass out in seconds.” Lester paused “and apparently he went into heat early yesterday. From what my scientists say, their house looks like it was staged as a burglary, but nothing was stolen, and nothing is broken, some papers were torn, but over all things are just thrown about.”

“Let me discuss it with our chief and you should know within the hour,” Gideon said. 

“One last thing,” Lester added, “if you agree, you will have to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Everything that you see is part of a classified government branch that only a handful of people know about. Also, we would prefer your tech analyst to be here with you. Connor has a very expensive set up that she  _ might  _ be able to hook into.”

“Understood,” Gideon replied “I will get back to you.”

* * *

RING!!!! RING!!!! 

“Hotchner”

“Hey, Hotch,” said Gideon without preamble “the Home Office just asked us personally to find a missing agent. Apparently they work for a special secret branch that reports directly to the minister, so there would be no red tape around law enforcement. It seems interesting, should we take it?” 

There was a pause although Gideon didn’t know if it was because Hotch was waking up or trying to take in the information he heard. “Wait, the Home Office? As in the UK? We only have jurisdiction in the US, we are federal agents.” 

“Yeah, I know, I don’t think they want our jurisdiction, I think they just want our help trying to track down their agent.” Gideon tried to explain. “I’m not too sure what their department is over there and what they do, but apparently they said they can’t track him down because ‘he is the one that normally tracks things down,’. Like our tech analyst, what’s her name, with her crazy clothes.”

“Garcia?” Hotch smirked. “So they want us there in an advisory capacity because they don’t know what to do next and they can’t go to local law enforcement?”

“Seems that way” Gideon confirmed

“Specifics?” Hotch asked

“All I was told was that he was taken from his bed. Which would be nothing, but he is an Omega, and he was with, I guess, two mates,? It seems he was the only one sleeping, but one was right next to him at the time, and one was downstairs.”

He also apparently hadn’t told anyone in the office he was an Omega. Or at least Lester didn’t know.” 

“Secret Omega, stolen from bed with two mates in the house and no one notices?” Hotch asked startled

“I guess the kid had just started his heat, too.” Gideon added. 

“I’ll call everyone, we will debrief on the plane. Wheels up in 45 minutes”

“Hotch?” Gideon said quickly “call the tech analyst too, she needs to come. And we will all need to sign nondisclosure agreements when we get there. Since the department is with the Official Secrets Act.”

“Fine.” Hotch said “We need to find this kid before it’s too late.”

* * *

RI-

“Gideon?” Lester asked impatiently 

“We are on our way” said Gideon, “We will call you guys from the plane to debrief the team”

“Perfect, we will need to debrief you about what you will be seeing here also…” Lester said slowly

“Let’s start with the case.” Gideon said “Gather your team and we will talk again in about an hour” 

* * *

RING!!!

“Hello? Lester?” Nick asked, he was sitting at the edge of the bed, nervous and shaky. Stephen was next to him. Neither of them knew that a bond could do something like that. Just hours before they were all blissfully happy. But their mate was starting his heat, and they could feel his distress. The Alphas were edgy, and angry. 

“Gather at the hub,” said Lester, sharply, already starting to get dressed. “we are debriefing the BAU team in an hour. They will be here in a bit. I will call in Becker and the others.” 

45 minutes later the five of them were sitting in the hub of the ARC, a nervous energy permeating the room as their pack leader’s emotional state was clearly felt throughout everyone else. Nick paced the Hub impatiently while Lester told Abby, Sarah, Becker, and Jenny that Connor was missing. Becker looked stunned. How did this happen? 

“What?!” Abby said furiously. She ran to Stephen, “You were supposed to protect him!” She accused. Sarah took her arm, comforting her. “He looked to you! You were the one that outed him in the first place!” She sobbed into Sarah’s shoulder. 

Stephen hung his head shamefully, but didn’t deny anything. 

“Abby, it wasn’t just his fault.” Cutter said gently. “We both placed our mating marks on him last night.” She looked shocked, and Cutter continued. “Since Conner came out to us, or revealed himself to Stephen, who then forced him to come out to us, we both have been courting him. Together. We helped him through his last heat. But we didn’t want to mate him then, Stephen and I agreed that we wanted to wait until after he was out of subspace to ask him to be our mate, then make the mark during his next heat. So after his heat was over, we took him out to dinner and asked him if he would like to be mates with us, and he said yes. Yesterday, when he went into heat early in Manchester, we were ready. We took him home and, we mated.” After the full explanation Abby looked placated. She had noticed the three of them together more. She just thought it was an Omega thing. It was nice that they were taking his feelings into account. “Stephen and I were both in the house when he was taken.”

“Are you telling me that I’m the only one who didn’t know Connor was an Omega?” Lester said, grumpily

“Only us six knew.” Sarah replied. “I thought he was going to tell you after that night, really. Sorry, Lester”

“I had no idea,” Becker said, “Is that why you all went into the helicopter to treat Connor yesterday? I thought it was weird. Especially when Abby started asking for SFs that were comfortable revealing their gender to be Beta. Blade threw me.” 

“Ditzy said that too.” Stephen said with a bit of a chuckle. “But yeah, he was pretty close to going into heat anyway, and the hit from that Camarasaurus induced it, I guess.” 

“We would have told you earlier Becker,” Abby said, “But it’s Connor’s secret to tell. And from what I understand, he is a little on the wary side of Alphas knowing he is an Omega.” 

“Probably why he didn’t tell you either, Lester,” Sarah put in.

“Well then, how did you all find out?” Lester asked

“It was my fault,” Stephen admitted. “I yelled at him for taking stupid risks and using himself as bait, again - “

“Even though it saved our lives” Abby interjected

“Well, yeah, but I still didn’t like it” Stephen looked hurt at the idea of Connor being put in danger for them. “Anyway, I guess I went too Alpha, and he was nearing a heat cycle so his Omega was close to the surface and it reacted in an instantly recognisable Omega bend of subservience. He barred his throat for me and I could instantly smell what he was. It was as though at that moment his Omega took over.” 

Lester nodded. “It probably did.” He motioned to Stephen “please, continue”

“Well, I asked him why he didn’t reveal himself and he said he was scared, and when I pushed further, he told me that a high school friend died on account of a gang rape when he had presented as Omega, and a bunch of other young alphas ended up in the hospital for injuries.” Lester wore a neutral mask, but Stephen could see there was a shadow of disgust behind his eyes. “I told him Cutter and I would never let anything happen to him, and that he should stop taking the suppressants because they would make him ill. I also said that we needed to tell the team. We were still out in the field at this time, because when I yelled at him it was right after the anomaly closed. So, we got back to the ARC, cleaned up, and he told everyone.”

“From what I remember,  _ you _ told everyone, Stephen.” Cutter said with a small laugh.

“Connor let me,” Stephen defended. 

“Sorry to cut this short,” Lester cut in with a small smirk “but we have a team of FBI agents arriving in a few hours, and I told them we would debrief them when they were ready for us.” 

* * *

The team gathered on the plane, wondering who could call them at 1:00 am. All the national police departments were closed at this time of night, and it was rare to get on a plane without a debrief first. Hotch showed up first, and took a seat at the table. Morgan and Reid showed up together not long after. Gideon and Prentiss came aboard one after another with JJ close behind. 

The plane didn’t move. 

Morgan looked at Hotch, “The team is here, who are we waiting for?”

They heard the clacking footsteps of chunky heels and panting breaths and their final member boarded the plane “IM SO Sorry I’m late Sir!!” Garcia blurted out waving her laptop around. “I needed to put together a Go bag and then-“ 

“It’s fine Garcia, just sit down so we can leave,” Hotch said, slightly amused at the brightly coloured tech analyst. 

“Yes, Sir!” She said, before taking a seat next to Emily and across from Morgan. 

“Hey, baby girl” Morgan said with a wink as the door closed and they started their journey, “you adventuring with us this time?” 

“Looks like it, my dark Adonis!” She replied. He beamed at her. 

“Due to the nature of the branch we are working with, it was asked that all members of the team be on site.” Hotch said as Penelope nodded 

“So Hotch, what’s the case?” JJ asked, slightly concerned by the formality. 

“We should be getting a phone call from their team to discuss it momentarily.” Gideon said. 

* * *

RING!!!

“Gideon” Gideon answered in his usual brisk manner

“Is your team there and ready for a debrief?” Lester said over the speaker phone. 

“Why don’t we introduce ourselves first,” Hotch said “my name is SSA Aaron Hotchner” 

They went around introducing themselves 

“SSA Jason Gideon” 

“SSA Derek Morgan”

“SSA Emily Prentiss”

“SSA Jennifer Jareau, or JJ”

“SSA Penelope Garcia”

“Dr Spencer Reid”

They introduced themselves in the order they held in the pack. 

_ The team from the ARC did the same _

_ “Mr James Les-“ _

_ “Professor Nick Cutter” Nick cut Lester off, asserting his station  _

_ “Stephen Hart” _

_ “Captain Becker” _

_ “Jennifer, Jenny, Lewis” _

_ “Dr. Sarah Page” _

_ “Just Abby, Abby Maintland” _

The BAU looked at each other when Cutter cut Lester off. Obviously there was some sort of power struggle there. 

_ “I’m dominant IN the ARC, Cutter leads the team in the field”  _ Lester explained . 

_ “We started the project together,”  _ the Scottish man answered, _ "you have no more power over me than Stephen does,”  _

_ “Fine, I deal with bureaucracy, he deals with creatures.”  _ The man they called Cutter, voiced an agreement. 

“Creatures?” Morgan said “what do you mean creatures, I thought we were coming for a case.” 

_ “Don’t worry about any creatures you see around, they won’t hurt you”  _ said a bright female voice. Abby.  _ “We only keep the ones that are harmless.” _

_ “Abby…”  _ said a deeper voice

_ “Right”  _ she said

Penelope laughed, she liked this girl. 

_ “The case; at GST 05:30 this morning I received a phone call from professor Cutter, saying that Connor Temple, the final member of our team, had vanished.” _

“What made you think he vanished and not just left?” Morgan asked

_ “Um, this is a bit awkward,”  _ Nick started in embarrassment the ARC team had never heard in their leader’s voice before,  _ “Stephen and I had just marked him”  _ Gideon,  Prentiss, JJ, and Garcia’s eyebrows shot up in alarm, Hotch and Morgan glowered. Reid shrank back slightly in his chair. Then the ARC member clarified.  _ “It was completely consensual, we had taken him out to dinner and asked him after his last heat, when we were sure he was out of subspace,”  _ The BAU relaxed a little, Non-consensual marking was something they saw a lot of, and it never ended well for the Omegas. _ “The three of us have been in a relationship for quite some time,”  _ Nick continued,  _ “So when the lad went into heat early yesterday we took him home and gave him the marks we promised. And we were careful not to go further than that. “ _

_ “We love and respect Connor far too much to do anything without his consent, and we don’t count subspace consent.” A british accent put in. “He had passed out of exhaustion from both the day and his Heat."  _ The BAU's demeanour went back to normal, approving of their stance on subspace. It was like taking advantage of someone when drunk, most Omega's couldn't resist the call of their subspace and said many things they wouldn't have said at any time. Reid remembered his mates doing something similar when he received his mating marks. He ran a hand over his neck unconsciously. Morgan and Hotch followed his movements with their eyes, unable to tear their focus away from the long limbs caressing the slim neck. The neck with their bites on it. The alphas looked at each other and shared a smile, as if they had a shared secret. 

_ “I was cleaning him off.”  _ Stephen continued his statement _ , _ pulling everyone back to the phone call _ “Nick had run out to the co-op on the corner for milk when everything happened.”  _

_ “I don’t think it was any later than 7:00,”  _ Nick said, _ “I was one of the last customers at the co-op. I swear I was gone no more than 5 minutes. I came back and smelled something acrid, like burning plastic, and suddenly I couldn’t stand straight anymore. I had to find a seat. I made it to the sofa and promptly passed out.” _

_ “He was there when I woke him up at 5:30.”  _ Stephen said. _ “As for me I have a lump on my head the size of a cricket ball. But they may have used some sort of drug on me too, because i also didn’t wake up until 5ish.” _

_ “When we woke up the cottage was in ruins.”  _ Nick complained.

_ “What he means is,”  _ Stephen clarified _ , “Papers and books were strewn about, but no one took anything. It was made to look like a robbery.” _

_ “They completely messed up my research, shredded it.”  _ Cutter argued

_ “What are you bringing research home for anyway?” Lester asked sharply. _

_ “Connor brings work home all the time.” Cutter said stubbornly. “I am just doing my job.” _

_ “Can you tell him to stop sometimes?” Stephen asked. “Seriously, Nick, you are the biggest workaholic I know.”  _

_ “Except maybe Connor.” Abby put in.  _

_ "Tell them to both stop then."  _ Said Stephen

_ “Lester may work just as hard,”  _ S arah put in _. _

_ “No, Connor is here way later than Lester, and far more often.”  _ Abby sniggered. Then she paused. _ “Was.”  _ I t seemed to get solemn on the other end of the phone. 

The BAU listened to this exchange then finally decided to ask some questions.

“Did anyone know he was an Omega?” Reid asked

_ “Only the six of us. By that I mean Stephen, Cutter, Becker, Abby, Sarah, and I,”  _ Jenny said. _ “I thought they were going to tell Lester a few months ago when we found out, but I guess not.”  _

“Do you know how long he has been living as a Beta?” Prentiss asked. 

_ “Well, I never suspected,”  _ Abby said _ , “then again, that doesn’t count for much,”  _

_ “You did live with him for two and a half years Abs,”  _ Stephen said, _ “if he could fool a flatmate, he must have been doing it for a while.”  _

_ “But I’m a Beta, probably why he came to me, instead of you or Cutter when his friends got nosy”  _ Abby said reasonably _. “That’s how I know about his work habits, he would be constantly getting home past midnight. And when I did manage to bring him home, he would be on his computer all night doing cutter’s calculations or updating his database, building one thing or another. The man couldn’t sit still.” _

“What about his friends,” Morgan asked, “do they know?”

_ “Connor doesn’t have many friends, and the ones that he did have… one of them died, in Connor’s arms, while the other friend looked on.”  _ the girl answered,  _ “I don’t think they talk anymore. But both of them from what I could smell were classic Beta.” _

“Family?” Hotch asked

_ “Never talks about them,”  _ Nick said _. “I think he let it slip once that he wouldn’t ‘be able to claw out again’, but it was right after his friend died, and I didn’t want to push. I wasn’t sure if he meant figuratively or literally.” _

“What does he do for you?” Reid asked wanting to get a clearer mindset on the kid

_ “Well, he pretty much started this whole thing we do. Brought it to Stephen and I, he was a PhD student at the time. Paleontology.”  _ Nick said remember the kid fondly. _ “He is our resident genius, he is our tech wizard, and inventor. He calculates formulas for me, helps Stephen with his microbiology research, keeps up our database with Abby’s findings, built the ADD, and goes with us out into the field.”  _

_ “Don’t forget how much trouble he is constantly getting into when we are IN the field.”  _ Becker grumbled  _ “I feel like I need to put him on a lead.”  _ There was a chuckle from everyone

“The kid sound like their version of you Reid” Gideon said with a chuckle

“More like Garcia” Reid huffed. “And I can hold my own in the field,  _ Thank You. _ ”

_ “He can too,”  _ Cutter assured Reid, _ “He just has a habit of… what is it?”  _

_ “He plays decoy.”  _ Stephen growls with an alpha menace to his voice _. “He offers himself up as bait, or as an offering so that others can get away.” _

“Unconventional for an Omega.” Hotch said, watching Reid, “Brave kid.” 

_ “He is a genius and knows all the creatures, so he knows the risks better than probably any of us, except Cutter and maybe Abby,”  _ Jenny added. 

“Could this have anything to do with what you do? I believe you may need to fill us in more on that before we can get a clear profile.” Morgan said

_ “First thing we considered, that,”  _ Nick said,  _ “But the only one who would be interested in the project, isn’t crazy enough to do this.” _

_ “She left you for 8 years, Cutter, reappeared, asked you to travel throughout  _ time _ with her, told us there were sabretooths coming, only to find Dodos, and then made us bait for a predator. Not to mention reveal her affair with Stephen only to ask HIM to travel throughout time with her. And then, remember the thing with Leek last year? Yeah, bloody mad.”  _ Abby said, summarizing their encounters with the woman and getting heated.  _ “I think it’s safe to say, I think she bloody well is mad enough to do something like this. Stephen nearly died last year due to what she planned with Leek.” _

_ “I think what Nick means is that she wouldn’t take  _ Connor _.”  _ Stephen says _. “Not when Nick and I were so convenient. She isn’t an Alpha, and he serves no purpose for her. She may be mad, but everything she does has a rational explanation.” _ __   
  


“That is an inherent contradiction to the very meaning of Madness,” Reid said promptly “Madness, in the British vernacular means ‘mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented, or extremely foolish or unwise imprudent; irrational. Someone cannot be ‘mad, but only in a rational sense’.”

It went quiet. The first time the ARC heard Reid’s spouting of facts as if it was nothing.  _ “He makes a fair point.”  _ Cutter said, with a small lump in his throat _. “Sorry, Spencer was it? Connor does that. He would have also pointed out that being able to take a highly sensitive Omega from in a house with his mates, without a trace, is a skill not even Helen can achieve.” _

“No trace?” Hotch said surprised “i thought you said it had looked like it been ransacked”

_ “It did,”  _ Stephen said,  _ “But there were no footprints, no fingerprints, the door was locked, no windows were open, the alarm was still set. We are still unsure of how they got in the house.” _

It went silent again… 

“We will need to see what it is you do, because I’m not entirely convinced it is not related” Hotch said. “we should be landing soon.-”

_“Before you split off_ _however you normally work,”_ Lester said, cutting in _, ”Please come to the ARC, we are gathered here and shall tell you what we do. It’s easier to do it with all of you together at once.”_

Hotch looked at his team, all looking back at him. “I hope you have coffee.” He said at last and the phone call disconnected. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More pairings to come!


	2. Getting Started

An hour later the BAU walked into an odd shaped building, Hotch, Gideon, Morgan, Prentiss and Reid all recoiled when they smelled the restless energy in the air. It was a familiar smell, but it was strong, there was also something not human about it. They turned to go to a large open room and found a much more familiar smell there. Fear, anxiety, nervousness, confusion, guilt. They were all familiar from the many cases they had worked on in the past. They are not uncommon feelings for family members of victims to have. 

  
  


The ARC Team saw the group of impressive looking men and women walking towards them and remembered he needed to show the man who’s den this was.

Cutter stood and walked over to the man with the neat suit at the front. “Nick Cutter” He said, holding out a hand 

“Aaron Hotchner” Said the man, shaking it. 

“This is my team, who you talked to on the phone, Stephen, Becker, Jenny, Sarah, and Abby.” 

Lester rolled his eyes at the exclusion. Hotch didn’t say anything. 

“Who is this beauty!!” a woman with blond hair, a bright red top, blue skirt red polk - a - dots, purple tights, and yellow shoes, with a bright yellow sweater to match. She ran up to the large 5 monitor computer with three keyboards that were fashioned on a steel frame standing resolute in the center of the Hub and wandered around it for a moment, taking in the cables and the hubs and then she sat down at the central keyboard and immediately started going through the code of the computer, just trying to work out its function. 

  
  


Abby put a hand over her mouth looking the girl up and down and turned to Sarah, “It’s a female Connor!” she said excitedly and the two giggled. They quickly centered themselves under Cutter’s laser vision, “That’s the ADD, Connor built it from scratch and programmed it himself.”

“Wait, you said he did paleontology,” Garcia said going through the code. “There is nothing in here about dinosaurs, this is really advanced… holy shit… what is this?” Reid came up behind her

“Looks like those are mathematical equations for a specific type of energy and magnetic resonances, and radio waves… but not really, the base equations are all kind of... wrong... They are based on that but they also coordinate with locations and time, frequency, intensity, mass, and wait” Reid turned around to look at Nick, “Is this a Navigation tool for portals to other dimensions?”

“How did you figure that out from looking at code?” Cutter said a little taken aback, “Also, we were getting to that.”

“The kid’s equations are incredibly sophisticated. Does he have any formal training in math?” Reid asked.

“Never asked,” Nick said bluntly, “He just kinda, does it.” 

“This is Gideon, Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ and over there is Garcia and Reid.” Garcia and Reid were talking excitedly to each other about the computer network they found. 

“Since Agent Reid figured out one part, maybe you would like to join us to Abby’s neck of the woods and she will show you her pals,” said Sarah, “If you want to see some more of the theoreticals, Professor Cutter, Connor and I have been going through mythical beasts over the centuries to find their origins.”

“Coffee is in the breakroom,” Stephen added, “Just down there,” The BAU team, having been up for nearly 24 hours straight with only about 4 hours to rest on the plane made a much needed detour to fill up on caffeine. They convened in the Menagerie a few minutes later.

“We deal with fractures in time and space we have dubbed ‘Anomalies’” Jenny explained, with her best PR attitude, trying to catch the BAU up “We locate them around the UK, and deal with anything that may come through, mostly just make sure if it is a carnivore to not hurt anyone and if not, just go back home. We try to get the carnivores back home alive also.”

“We tranq ‘em,” Becker says, holding up his gun. 

They looked around the Menagerie and Abby opened the blinds to reveal the creatures. “Every so often, a creature won’t make it home, the anomaly closes up before we get them through,” said Abby, slightly sadly, “if they are nice (herbivores), we keep them here, until we can locate an anomaly back to their time.”

“So when you say creatures,” Morgan said slowly stepping up to the window and peering down to the basement level where the animals were gathered, then he stopped and gasped. “Dinosaurs?”

“We have had anomalies from the Precambrian to the Future.” Said Cutter. “Every era in between. By era, I mean, give or take a few hundred thousand years or so. Jurassic, Cretaceous, Cambrian, Precambrian-” 

“They get it Cutter,” Jenny said, cutting him off. “We keep it a secret from the people because it is safer for them that way. I mean, there is no good way to say ‘dinosaurs may come out of a shiny portal at any moment so keep a keen eye’”. Stephen looked slightly abashed. “Connor’s ADD detects them as soon as they appear, and we get there as fast as possible, keeping a watch until it disappears. That’s what we do.”

The BAU looked slightly incredulous. They wouldn’t have believed it except there was a Mammoth, an honest to god Mammoth in the next room. Plus a few other lizard-like things that had to be prehistoric dinosaurs.

“So, what do you all do?” Prentiss asked.

“I am the leader, obviously,” Cutter said “but also I am the most experienced paleontologist around, at least where we were when Connor came looking for someone to look into that thing two years ago. I study evolution and have been trying to figure out how these things started, what they are for, and how long they have been happening. I’ve been trying to map them, see if we can pinpoint exact dates in which anomalies occur so we can predict ones in the future.”

“I was Cutter’s lab assistant when we started." Stephen said, "I have an intimate knowledge of tracking, spent a few years in the US learning how to do it. But I also study the animals on a biological level, any that don’t survive. Connor uses those notes to update his database.”   
  


“Lester decided they needed more security after the incident with Leek.” Becker shrugged. “I came in with a team of Special Forces to help keep the brainiacs from getting into a situation they can’t get out of.” 

“And we are very grateful” said Sarah, Becker smiled at her, but the BAU noticed the smile didn't reach his eyes. 

“I was brought on as a PR person, because they needed someone to cover the media when things got out of hand. Well, people and the media. And Cutter isn’t so good with people.”

“I’m fine with people,” Cutter said defensively, “It’s idiots I have a problem with.” Everyone sniggered

“I’m the most recent addition, Cutter thinks there might be an overlap between the anomalies and mythology.” Sarah said, “Since I have PhD Mythology and folklore and had just seen an anomaly, I was recruited.” Abby kissed her cheek 

“And we are happy you joined us,” She said with a grin. Then turned to the FBI

“I study animal behavior, specialty is lizards and amphibians,” Abby said “I worked in a Zoo until I ran into these two, and Connor. We are the original four. Plus Lester, but he does deskwork. From day one it’s been Stephen, Cutter, Connor, and me. Anyway, I can understand what they want, and how they communicate. Connor uses it to update his database.”

“So most of you just sort of fell into this.” Gideon asked, looking at Stephen with an odd look

They all nodded. “I was hired as a PR person, but wasn’t told the specifics until we were knee high in Precambrian worm goo.” Jenny said, with a small shiver

“Let it go already,” Nick said, exasperated, “I told you not to come up, didn’t I?”

“How was I supposed to know what I was getting into?” Jenny shot back.

“Same for me,” Becker said. “I was hired as a SF Captain, was told about the dinosaurs and didn’t believe anyone until an angry alligator nearly pulled Connor back into ancient Egypt.” 

“This Connor seems like an interesting kid.” said Morgan “Does he get into trouble a lot in the field?” they all nodded vigorously. 

“I mean, it’s not because he is being an idiot... Anymore.” Abby said defensively. “He does stupid stuff and makes himself bait so that the rest of us can either get away, or have few more seconds.”

“He’s the one who keeps the database too, and can tell you every and any creature that comes through, he also knows their behavior, and how dangerous they are.” Stephen says with a sad chuckle. “He probably knows the risks better than any of us, and he still runs out there distracting things and making himself bait.”

JJ nodded, “You mentioned that before.” She said

“Anything else you need?” Cutter said after a moment’s silence. “Need to know about Connor, or about the ARC?”

“Where does he live?” Hotch asked, regaining himself.

“He has a room at my place,” Said Cutter. 

“Is that where he was taken from too?” Cutter nodded

“Morgan, Reid, Garcia and I will go to Cutter’s, Reid and Garcia will go through Connor’s room, Morgan and I will take a look at the crime scene.” Suddenly there was a blaring alarm coming from the next room. As if conditioned by Pavlov himself, Jenny, Cutter, Stephen, Sarah, Becker, and Abby all ran to the hub. The BAU followed.

“Where is it?” Cutter asked 

Sarah typed on the computer for a moment “Fukushima Gardens” 

“Shit” Cutter sighed. “Lester! We need you for this one.”

Lester came out of his office and leaned on the railing. “Where?” 

“Fukushima Gardens” 

Lester walked back into his office but not before everyone could hear him say, “Good lord have mercy.”

“15 minute drive,” Cutter said

Becker shook his head, “I know a faster way, keep on my tail.” 

“Ahem. Professor Cutter.” Hotch said before Cutter ran out of the Hub. Cutter turned. “We would like permission to look at the crime scene and Connor’s room if that’s ok.

Cutter put his hands in his pocket and pulled out a key ring. He threw it to Hotch. “Please, find him.” There was a bit of a desperate plea in his voice. “We will come back to help as soon as this is dealt with.” He ran out of the hub leaving the BAU there alone. 

“This case will be interesting…” Gideon said with a bit of a chuckle.

“I wonder if that is how we seem to our families.” Hotch asked quietly

“There is a reason most of us don’t have families,” Morgan said, putting an arm around Reid’s waist, pulling the Omega close to him. 

“Looks like they don’t really have any either.” JJ remarked 

“We still need an address,” said Hotch running his hand through his hair. “Whatever, You three will come with me,” He pointed to Garcia, Morgan and Reid, “JJ and Prentiss, see if Lester will give you access to some sort of official law enforcement database to see if we can find a pattern, Gideon, find out what you can from Lester. We need to figure out if this was personal due to his profession or if he was targeted because of his gender.” 

* * *

Ten minutes later Reid, Morgan, Hotch, and Garcia were standing in the foyer of a fairly nice mid sized house. They went through and the first thing they noticed were the papers shredded, burned, and torn up by hand and flung across the living room, the desk in the corner of the room stood empty and it looks like all the papers that once stood on the desk were littered around the floor. From how much paper was covering on the floor, the desk had once been piled high. Ancient artifacts and prehistoric skulls littering all the surfaces, but they had been knocked over and haphazardly placed to look like they were thrown about. But none of the fragile artefacts had been broken. “Reid?” Reid waded his way through the torn documents on the ground, picking up and going through a few of handfuls of them placing them back on the desk. 

He shook his head. “Must be Cutter’s work, or his students’” 

They made their way back through the messy kitchen and up to the bedrooms. They saw one with the door closed, which is probably why the unsub overlooked it, opening the door they saw an unmade bed and clothing everywhere. “This must be where they sleep,” said Morgan, “or slept last night.” He made his way in and careful not to touch anything, he started examining the windows. 

Garcia and Reid kept going to another door that was closed, when they opened it up they saw what looked like a kids room. Garcia laughed “This must be us.” She said, seeing the laptop bag, the open laptop computer next to the desktop, the video game consoles and geek memorabilia. “I like this kid.”

Reid and Garcia went in and looked around, it was rather messy, but not really dirty. And as Reid looked through the mess he was pleasantly surprised to find advanced theories on everything from mathematics, to evolution, to physics, and technology. Reid see the direct and tangential relationships to the kids work in the advanced theories he was studying. And then there were ones he didn’t quite see the relevance to, like, advanced theories of pedagogical paradigms, and lucid dreaming, psychology, survival tactics, and many more. He recognised books in Elvish, Klingon, and Latin, Greek, German, french, Gaelic and even a few in some Asian and Middle Eastern languages. There were library books on every surface in every genre. 

Garcia went through his dvd collection and music, recreational books and finally computer. “This kid is a classic geek.” She told Reid. “Original Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, first trilogy Star Wars, Jurassic Park!”

“He also seems to be quite gifted,” Reid confessed. These are the latest theories by the most credible academics, and it looks like he has corrected more than one of their papers and crossed out numerous facts.” He turned over a copy of an academic paper he was reading, “to expound upon a more logical explanation directly countering theirs.” He smirked at Garcia. “I do that too,” he confessed. 

“You would, I’m not surprised Wonder Boy.” She said typing on the laptop on the desk, trying to get in. “Shit, his encryption is tough. We may need the password. Wait… this code looks very familiar let me think…OMG!!” She paused for a moment then her eyes widened in astonishment, “but that was 10 years ago!” She said with awe. 

“What?” Asked Spencer, leaning over her shoulder.

“I’ve said before that all hackers have a recognisable style to their code, and it’s true.” She said, explaining while adjusting her coding to what she remembered. “A long time ago, before I had to stop hacking, I came across this kid who was pretty genius at it. Was on all the time, I didn’t think much of it at the time. Anyway, his handle was ledinosaurTemple.” She laughed and he stared. “You know, he likes dinosaurs and his name is Temple. The dinosaur temple.” She shrugged. “It was cute. But if he is only 24 or 25 now, then he must have been like 14 or 15 then. So his skill is pretty incredible.” She typed a bit more “and… in! Damn!”

They both stared at the screen. Garcia hacked into the desktop to see what was on that and it looked like there were about 10 things going on at once. All academic or work related and all highly advanced and complicated. “They weren’t lying when they said he’s a genius” Garcia noted

“That’s low level genius at best. I could do all of that if I wanted to,” Reid huffed, apparently aggrieved at the praise. “Besides, those theories that he used -.”

“Hey, 187, I never said he was smarter than YOU!” She said slightly amused. “I just said that he is also on a level above us normal brains.” 

Reid grumbled as Hotch poked his head into the room. “How are you two doing in here?” He asked. 

“I’m not sure about all the victimology stuff Hotch,” Garcia said, “but this kid is smart, next level smart. I mean Reid level smart. I had to use my former knowledge of him as a hacker to trick the computer into letting me in. and that’s only because, get this, I knew him as a hacker 10 years ago. He was on my level back then, we hung out and traded codes in chat rooms and stuff. And look. He is currently working on about 7 or 8 things at once. And that’s just this one computer. It’s open next to his desktop, so my guess is when he gets home he uses them both at the same time. Extreme multitasker.”

Reid made a face when Garcia compared Connor to him. “He is smart though. He reads the latest theories in multiple fields by numerous minds. But he doesn’t just read them, he disputes them.” He chuckled a bit. “And I kinda agree with his conclusions, he knows his stuff.” He pointed out more books, “it also looks like he is learning about advanced microbiology, field medicine, evolutionary biology, and linguistics.” Hotch raises his eyebrows. “He also has a few dozen books on mythological creatures.” 

“I found it!” Garcia squealed excitedly. “The database they were talking about. Damn…” Hotch and Reid looked over her shoulder while she took a look through the database. There were different ways to search for a creature; era, (all the minor and major subgroups) footprint, what it eats, and threat level. 

She clicked on one of the creatures.  _ Mosasaur,  _ there was a picture. A bloody picture of an actual Mosasaur _ averages 10-15m length, can grow as large as 25m. Deadly. Cambrian era _

There was another picture of a foot print

_ Most closely related to today’s alligator, can swim and walk on land. Oar to the throat - effective.  _

“This is really detailed.” She said, then laughed “I kinda don’t know if I want to know the story behind that.”

“He and Abby were collecting water samples when the Mosasaur attacked Abby,” the three of them jumped and looked around, seeing Stephen behind them. “he grabbed an oar from a boat close by and defended her. It ended up splintering in the Mosasaur’s throat and it ran away” Stephen came over to look at the database. “I didn’t notice he had put that in there.” He chuckled. “very Connor.” 

Hotch looked at his watch “that was fast.” He said when Stephen finished.

Stephen shrugged “no creatures came through, and Connor hasn’t built the locking device yet. Becker left some SF’s there to guard it until it closes,” Stephen looked around at Connor’s room. “I would rather spend my time looking for my Mate. So, I’m here to help. Cutter is making coffee downstairs, if anyone wants some.” 

They all nodded with tired looks and went down to the kitchen. Morgan was already there with a cup of coffee, talking to Cutter. “-ow the unsub thinks and his intentions,” Morgan was explaining. 

“Why don’t you lot grab a cup’a and we will go to the den where there is more room to sit down” Said Cutter, grabbing his mug and motioning to Morgan. They got up and headed into the next room. Stephen pulled out four mugs and poured generous helpings of coffee. 

“Does anyone want milk or sugar?” He asked, turning to the fridge. 

“I’ll take some milk please,” Said Garcia, “And Reid will take all the sugar.” she elbowed the skinny Omega with a smile. 

“Sugar is actually vital for brain health and function,” Reid started, “and has been linked to the ability to raise one’s energy level immediately and store energy for later. It has also been proven to be able to provide an increase in serotonin levels creating an improved emotional state.” 

Stephen laughed.“It’s like Connor split into you two.” He said, pulling out the milk and sugar

Garcia and Reid looked at each other, then back at Stephen. “Really? We are pretty different, how does that work?” 

Stephen thought for a moment, “colourful, carefree, techie, and geeky,” he said pointing to Penelope, who gave a small grin and a shrug in assent. “Overachiever, clever, genius, understands everything as he learns it.” He pointed at Spencer who nodded after a moment’s consideration. “Combine the two, you get a clever, genius tech geek, who is carefree and colourful, and and overachieving techie who understands everything as he learns it.” He grinned. “That’s Connor. I mean, he started out clumsy as hell, flailing and fapping about, but his mind has never been a problem. His dress sense has never really changed either. Bright colors, gloves, hats, scarves, waistcoats. Graphic T-shirt’s. he’s a mess, but it kinda works.” 

Hotch laughed a bit. “Combining Garcia and Reid would definitely make a mess of a person. They barely work on their own.”

“Hotch!”

“Hotch!” They both said at the same time

They grabbed their mugs and went into the den to join Cutter and Morgan. 

“I heard the call this morning was uneventful,” Hotch said as he sat down. 

“Oh yeah, god, we have had way worse than that.” Cutter chuckled. “Remember when we got stuck in the Silurian Era, Stephen?”

“Don’t remind me,” he said with an eye roll. “With the kid Taylor. Thank god another anomaly opened or we would still be there.” 

“We wouldn’t have survived this long, don’t worry, we would be long dead.” Cutter said reassuringly

“Not helping.” Said Stephen. “Can we get back to Connor please?” 

“Yes,” Cutter turned to the members of the BAU, “Find anything useful? Why did you need to go through Connor’s stuff anyway?” 

“We need to create a complete victimology profile, so we know why he was targeted and if this was a specific attack on him, or if it is serial. We would look at the cases differently depending.” Said Hotch 

“Why?” Asked Stephen.

“Serial criminals target based on their own personal motivations. So the victims have some sort of similarity. Or cross-section. Kidnap for personal reasons tends to relate more to the victim themselves and who they are. It is often a person close to the victim, or who was close to the victim at one time.” Reid said spouting facts. “In fact 75% of kidnappings happen by a friend or relative.” Cutter and Stephen looked at Reid, and then at each other. Morgan caught the pained look in their eye. 

“Which is why we are looking into both possibilities right now.” Morgan said with a fortifying timbre. Reid put his hand on Morgan’s arm. Reid clearly had seen the look too

“It’s not that, Stephen said I sound like him when I rant pure information like that.” Reid said quietly. “Sorry, I will try not to do that.” He said louder to the Alphas.

Cutter pulled Stephen close with one hand and waved it off with the other. “It’s fine, it’s just very quiet without him around. I didn’t realise how anxious it would make me.”

Hotch and Morgan looked at each other, then looked at Spencer between them. They couldn't even begin to imagine how that separation must feel. They instinctively moved closer to the Omega between them. Reid could feel his alphas nervousness and felt them grow closer he had to keep a purr from emanating from his chest at the warm, safe, feeling between his two mates. He forced himself to think of the missing Omega and the empty space between the Alphas across from them

Garcia had Connor’s laptop in her lap, “You didn’t know he was an Omega at the beginning did you? That thing with the Mosasaur is not something you think an Omega would do.”

Cutter laughed and turned to Stephen, “you told them?” 

“He put it in the database ‘oar in throat - effective’” Stephen said. “They found the database.” 

Cutter motioned to Garcia to show him then shook his head with a grin. “That boy…” he muttered with a chuckle. “Yeah, he has done a lot of things that didn’t really read ‘Omega’, talking down his friend who was infected with that deadly prehistoric parasite while in front of a team of SF’s with their lasers pointed at them, doesn’t really scream ‘omega’ either.”

Morgan looked surprised. “Abby said his friend died in his arms, that was the friend?” Cutter and Stephen nodded 

Stephen continued the story “his idiot friends stole a dodo that had escaped from our anomaly site. It turns out, a number of the dodos were infected with a deadly parasite that takes over its host, and makes the host bite anyone it can in order to lay its eggs and pass itself along. The dodo Connor’s friends took had the parasite and passed it to one of them. By the time we got there he had reached a highly aggressive state and taken Abby captive. The SFs were going to shoot him, but Connor went in and talked his friend back into control. So he was able to die human.” Stephen looked at Cutter. “Almost broke him though. He nearly quit after that. Nick convinced him to stay on.”

“Like talking down a suspect,” Morgan said nodding in comprehension, “Although it must have been difficult to try to do it with a best friend.”

“If by suspect, you mean half of you fighting with an angry prehistoric parasite for control, then sure.” Cutter said.

“Well, many of our suspects have mental illnesses,” Hotch explained, “so it’s not really that different.”

“Mental illness isn’t the best term to describe it, they are often psychopathic or sociopathic, which I guess are mental illnesses, but it’s not just the mental illness that makes the suspect do what they do.” Reid tried to explain. 

  
  


“Which brings us back to Connor being kidnapped.” Stephen said. 

“Yes, Morgan, what did you find?” Hotch said, turning to his partner.

“The robbery was obviously staged, nothing was broken, nothing of value was taken,” Morgan said, “Nick, you said you went to the co-op on the corner at about 7? I took a walk there, and timed it. It takes a minute and a half each way. The sign said it closes at 19:30 on tuesday nights, which last night was.” Cutter nodded, following the evidence. “Did you lock the door when you left?”

Nick thought. “We normally have it on autolock,” He said. 

“But yesterday with Connor’s heat, we fully unlocked the door,” Stephen finished,

“I make a habit of bolting the door behind me as soon as I close the door,” Nick said. 

“We live in a good area,” Stephen thought aloud turning a horrified face to Nick, “You forgot to reinstate the autolock.” He accused

“You know I bolt the door when I enter the house!” Nick said defensively, standing, his arms crossed

“But you were gone!” Stephen shouted standing up, furious that such a minor mistake could cost them so much. 

“Professor Cutter, Mr Hart, I believe there is more at play than just forgetting to lock the door for 5 minutes.” Hotch said. “Please sit down.”

They turned to him in alarm, then sat warily. 

“How often do you go get milk from that co-op at that time?” Derek asked 

Nick thought, “Our nightly routines vary drastically depending on what’s happening that day.” he said. “But I normally take some sort of evening stroll between 6-10. That wouldn’t have been it though, And I always make sure the door is locked when I leave for those, because they sometimes last an hour. Connor sometimes joins me.”

“Do you think we are looking for someone who just happened to have tried the door and saw it was opened?” Stephen asked nervously. 

“It doesn’t read that way,” Reid said, “This reads as a highly organised unsub who knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it, he was smart and vindictive. He wanted to know you had something to do with it and make you feel responsible which is why he slipped in when Cutter was gone. That plus his seeming ransack of Cutter’s desk in particular shows his relationship with education, and further education. His treatment of it shows his hatred of those who have been able to pursue it. It was probably something he wasn’t able to do even though he wanted to and he resents those who were able to get the education he never got

Garcia was still going through the laptop, “Sir? I found something that is different.” She said and gave the computer to him “It was in a locked file in a corner of the disc drive that is very hard to find. Put there deliberately. There is absolutely nothing geek, or ARC about it.”

Cutter and Stephen looked at each other in surprise. Then again, they were reminded just this morning how little they knew about their mate’s past. 

On the screen there was a picture of a run down one level house, and it just said, “I’ll be back.”

“There is another picture embedded in this one,” Garcia went on. “I'm guessing Conner found it.” she revealed it and it had a GIF of an omega sign on fire. 

Reid contemplated this for a moment. “You said that he told you he has been suppressing since he presented, right?”

The two alpha mates nodded. 

“I’m guessing he lied,” Reid said plainly. 

“Why would he lie?” Stephen asked, slightly hurt

“Simple,” said Reid with a small shrug “The truth is worse.”

“Did he say why he hid?” Morgan asked, handing the computer back to Garcia.

“What did you find?” Cutter asked harshly, a nervous energy coursing through him.

“He said that he was scared because a friend of his died by rape by alphas aftter presenting in high school. I guess it traumatised him.” Stephen said. “A bunch of alphas ended up in the hospital after fighting, those that didn't end up in the hospital, gang raped him so bad that he died from it.”

Reid flinched, and nodded. “So, i'm guessing all that did happen, but that's not the only reason he started hiding.” He looked at his colleagues, at Hotch, who nodded, “Garcia?” she handed him the laptop. He turned it around and showed them the message. And then the GIF. Cutter and Stephen looked horrified.

“We are starting to get a better look at our Unsub, we knew that he was highly organised, and that it was premeditated. This gives us another level of definition.” Morgan explained “I think Connor knows who took him. He must have recognised the house in the picture which is why he hid it away. It must be someone that he doesn’t want to remember from his past. It’s rather generic, but it is pointed, meaning, I think the Unsub is targeting specific victims, and it’s someone they may have escaped in the past.”

“The GIF is more concerning because it is a sign that this could possibly either be or become serial.” Hotch continued. “We have to consider who would want to grab an Omega right as their heat begins.” 

“Alphas, of course.” Stephen said. 

“Hmm,” Reid considered, “But Alphas would be fine with any Omega, why take one that had just been marked? Alpha/omega pheromones work best when either wild, or with their own pair. Omegas that have a mark emit almost no heat pheromones, at least not enough to be grabbed from between two large Alphas. No, this feels more like Beta or Omega work.” Spencer looked at Hotch. “Logically speaking. Then again psychopaths may do anything, no matter the gender.” 

Hotch agreed. “We have already agreed that this isn’t a textbook kidnapping, he has a purpose and his victims are specific. We should treat the unsub more like a target specific sexual sadist serial killer. We should go back to the ARC now, Bring the laptop, Garcia, see if Lester can give you access to the Home Office network. I want you to see what you can find about Connor’s past. Anything and everything, medical records, school reports, home life, what have you. Reid, when we get back we will reconvene with the others and see what they have found out. If the others have found similar cases you can start a geological profile. If not, you will join the rest of us as we try to figure out who this guy is.” He looked to Stephen and Nick, “We aren't used to having family of the victims involved, but if you would like to help out, you are more than welcome to join us. It is your lab we are returning to.” Nick nodded and got up, Stephen looked around at the empty coffee mugs.

“Let me chuck these in the sink and I will be right with you.” Stephen said, picking them up. Reid and Morgan started helping. 

“It’s faster if we help.” Morgan said with a smile at the lab tech. 

“Agent Hotchner? Do you have my keys?” Cutter asked, patting his pockets. 

“I put them on the table by the door.” Hotch replied. 

“Ah, Thank you,” Cutter said, walking over and picking them up, “Let’s go, Stephen!” He called over his shoulder.

“Does everyone have everything,” Hotch asked, “Garcia? You have what you need?” She nodded, picking up her bag on her shoulder and carrying Connor’s laptop in her hand. “Let’s go!”


	3. Learning more

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garcia and the team find secrets about Connor's past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some terms that I have no idea if are correct, but I don't care. leave a message if you know the correct version of something and I will change it, otherwise it is staying

The drive back to the ARC was terrifying. Morgan was driving, trying to follow Cutter, who apparently drove like a mad person. “We do have the address, we could put it into the navigator.” Hotch said, holding on for dear life. Morgan grinned and pressed the gas. Reid rolled his eyes while he too held on to the door handle, Morgan was enjoying this way too much.

They reached the ARC in 10 minutes flat. Cutter was standing next to his truck next to Stephen talking when they all got out. “Nice work kid,” Cutter said shaking Morgan’s hand 

“No one can keep up with Cutter.” Stephen said ruefully. 

“And in another country no less,” Cutter added. “driving on the wrong side of the road. That must have been weird.” 

“Uh, yeah. Thanks” Said Morgan with a smile. 

“Please don't encourage him,” Reid said quietly. Morgan winked at him, beaming. 

They entered the ARC and found everyone in the central Hub again. 

“Is there somewhere that we can gather round a table and work? A free table, or room with chairs?” Hotch asked Lester

“Gideon told me what you would need, unfortunately we don’t have much communal work space, since our work doesn’t really do that, but Connor’s Lab is free at the moment.” He steered them all into a large room with a large steel table covered with LEDs, circuits, wires, pieces of metal, and paper covered with graphs, calculations, figures, theories and drawings. “We should find somewhere to put what he is working on though for when he returns.”

“What is he working on?” Emily asked, looking at all the drawings and calculations. 

“He was trying to figure out how to lock the anomalies using an electromagnetic charge” Sarah said, coming up behind them. “With some experimenting we found that electricity makes the anomalies change their form, into something that is unable to be penetrated. So, he decided to try to make a contraption to do that. So SFs don’t have to stand guard until it closes, we can just lock it and wait for it to close.”

“Hopefully, one day we will figure out how to close them ourselves.” Cutter said joining the group. “Let me get a tray or something to move these out of your way.” He said and headed out. 

Stephen came back with a large metal tray, a roll of butcher paper, and some tape. “Here, you can put this over the boards. Connor would hate if someone messed up his equations.” He handed JJ the roll of Butcher paper and tape and she started putting it up on the walls. Emily, Morgan and Reid helped Stephen to collect all the paper and carefully move the tech parts onto the sheet. Reid made sure they were all in the same relative place to each other, and Stephen carefully carried it back to Cutter’s office. Hotch helped JJ put up the Butcher paper on the walls, careful not to stick any tape on any parts that were written on. Garcia approached Lester about gaining access to personal records. 

Once everyone sat down Hotch turned to them seriously. “This isn’t new for us, we have worked kidnapping cases before. We need to distance ourselves from Con- the victim,” he corrected himself, quickly, “and look at this as if it was just another case. I know it will be difficult because his friends and family are here, and they are the ones who brought us in, we are in his lab, but we cannot lose our professional detachment. Once the case is over, I am allowing us a day off, we can get a good night’s rest, and maybe go get a drink with everyone from the ARC.” They all nodded. “But professional detachment until then, clear?”

Ok, let’s go over what we found this morning. Prentiss, JJ, were you able to go through local law enforcement records to see if there are any similar cases?” 

“Actually,” JJ said, “Better, it seems that all local enforcement centers have recently created a centralised database that runs through the Home Office and covers the entire UK, so we aren’t restricted to precincts.” 

“Useful,” Morgan remarked. 

“We started with that exact M.O.” Emily supplied, “and there was nothing.”

“But then we decided to start widening the search to premeditated attacks against Omegas and missing Omegas.” JJ chimed in. “There are a lot more. We started looking for unsolved cases, which are also an unreasonably high number.”

“And we were looking in the last 18 months Hotch,” Prentiss put in “There are over 1,500 missing Omegas in the UK in the last 18 months. They are the smallest percentage of the population, how is that possible!”

“There are more unsolved crimes than solved everywhere.” Reid started. “There are probably even more unreported crimes. Some say that there are as many as 10 unreported crimes for every one that is reported. And Omega sex trafficing is as lucrative as its always been.” 

“How many of the missing Omegas were prominent members of society,” Gideon asked “or holding down a good job, or getting a second or third degree, like a masters or doctorate, or holding down a specialized job. Like Connor is?” 

“Not many of the files said, but from what I recall, it was way fewer.” JJ said thinking, looking through her notes from that morning.

“What did you guys find?” Gideon asked the four that went to Cutter’s house.

“Well, Stephen was right about there not being a trace INside the house.” Morgan started. “But I found ladder marks in the grass and marks on the window next to their bedroom on the second, uh, first, uh, it was the bedroom up the stairs.” He fumbled over the correct floor phrasing to use. Reid laughed. “The window it would have jutted up against was the window the bed was backed up to, though, and that is no coincidence. The unsub had to have been there before.”

“Stephen and Cutter are getting a complete tox screen done in the med bay to see if they had been drugged with any alpha dampening drug” Hotch continued. “They will let us know their results when they find out.” 

“I found a message deep in Connor’s computer that was sent to him two days ago.” Garcia said, positioned at the end of the table, one screen opened on one corner, the other screen open on the other, both tilted up facing her. 

Hotch looked around. “You didn’t say when he received it.” 

“The time stamp was encrypted.” Garcia said. “Also, I didn’t get a chance to. I found another encrypted time stamp though. On the GIF. It has today's date on it.”

“What is the message?” JJ asked. Garcia turned Connor’s computer around to show the two images with their respective time stamps. 

“Creepy,” JJ said.

“Seconded,” said Prentiss.

“So we know our unsub is highly organised, methodical and stalks their victims,” Gideon narrowed down. “He plays on fear, and we can assume there is some sort of sexual aspect to the kidnapping, if it was done as his heat was starting.” 

“Do any of those missing persons cases mention if they were close to their heat when they were kidnapped?” Hotch asked. They shook their heads in unison.”

“The one story house could just be indicative of showing an omega their role, ‘this is where you belong,’ or it could be an actual place that means something to the both of them. A shared memory. That with the words ‘See you again soon,’ means that they have a past. It could mean that he intends to take Connor back to that house again” 

“I got something,” Garcia said. “Looks like Connor Temple became a ward of the shire at age 10. Doesn’t go into much, but he was taken away from his parents due to mistreatment of a physical and uh other natures that shouldn’t happen to a ten year old boy, anywhere. It says that the parents denied all accusations but were called on multiple times from when he was 3 to 10. There are also several files of x-rays and pictures documenting bruises and things from those seven years. It looks like one social worker stopped by regularly to check on him.”

“Anything else about the family?” Hotch asked

“Looking now,” Garcia said, “The Temple family was an upper lower class family of three in lower yorkshire. At around the time Connor was 3, his cousin came to stay with them which made them a family of four. They had a one bedroom flat, and the father frequently was out of work and drinking. His mom died when he was 5 from overwork.”

“No wonder he doesn’t talk about home much,” Said JJ. “I wouldn’t either.”

“Cousin?” Hotch prompted

“5 years his senior, he grew up in a broken home with an abusive father. One day the father killed the mother, left and never returned.” Garcia cringed as she finished “Apparently the boy was in the room.”

“The cousin could be someone to watch.” Reid said.

“Name?” Hotch asked. 

“Kingston Lee.” Garcia said promptly. 

“What about his time after he became a ward?” Prentiss asked. 

“Hmm,” Garcia looked through the records. “I don’t see too many transfers except there are like 2 transfers in a one year span. So it seems he was placed somewhere and taken out again as soon as possible. Other than that there are 3 homes, one from 10-14, one from 14-15, one from 15-18. Then he gets a full ride to a university in London.” 

“Who was the family he stayed with that one year?” Gideon asked. 

“It doesn’t say.” Garcia said. “And back then everything was on paper, so it’s not hackable.”

“Could you find the name of his social worker?” Gideon asked. 

“Of course!” She said cheerfully.

“Print all that background for me would you?” Gideon said. “Looks like Connor has a printer.” 

“Sure thing.” Garcia chimed as she worked, then from the corner of the room the printer started. 

“Thanks Garcia,” Gideon acknowledged, then he grabbed the piece of paper and headed out the door. 

He ran up the ramp towards Lester’s office as Stephen came into the lab with the results of the tox screen. 

“Lester, we have a few leads.” Gideon said as Lester turned around in his chair. “We need to get in touch with a social worker in Yorkshire. What would be the best way to do that? Normally we just call and say `FBI’, but that won’t work here.” 

“Jenny can handle that.” He said, nodding “She works for the Home Office, so it’s a similar level of authority.”

Gideon thought about it, “Ok, is that how we should deal with talking to any british civilians?” He asked

“Yes, Take Jenny to help question people, and Becker and his team for any military or police presence you require.”

“Deal.”

“Anything else?”

“Ah, Yes,” He said, “We were going through his past and found two areas of possible concern.” 

Lester’s brows knitted as Gideon continued. “It seems that an older cousin from an abusive home came to stay with him when he was very young, up until the point he was removed from the house due to abuse. It also looks like he did very well in foster homes except one, where he was removed after a single year. If you check the months, when do switch grades in this country.”

“Same as the US, September.” Lester supplied. 

“That's what i thought. Because if you look by the months, it is just barely over a single year of school, including summer. So he must have had a teacher after one year there who notified someone early on in the school year and he was removed. Or there was another kid in the house who was brought in who may not have been a good fit” 

“So you are saying you think the house and the cousin are related?” Lester asked

“Not necessarily, I’m saying that either someone from or in that house at that time, or the cousin could possibly be our Unsub. But we have been generating a relatively general profile on the Unsub, but we are still unsure if this is a specific attack or serial, so we would like to try starting in both places.” Gideon explained. “May we borrow Jenny for a while?” 

“As long as there is no anomaly call,” Lester said, “She is all yours.”

* * *

  
He went back to the lab where the team was seated and found Stephen leaving. “Stephen, wasn’t it?” Stephen turned and nodded at Gideon. Gideon looked at him, eyes studying his face. 

“Did you need something Agent Gideon?” Stephen asked politely.

“.....What’s your Mother’s name?” He asked after a moment’s hesitation 

“I’m sorry?” Stephen asked, taken aback by the odd question.

Gideon shook himself out of it. “Where can I find Ms, Jenny Lewis?” 

“Let me text her for you.” Stephen said before retreating back into a lab across the hall.

Gideon turned back to the lab where his team was working and went back to his seat. 

“What was that about Jason?” Hotch asked slightly impatiently.

“I wanted to know how to deal with the police stuff while we are here.” Gideon answered. “Lester told me we have Jenny Lewis at our disposal who will help gain clearance to talk to who we need to talk to, and Captain Becker and his squad with any police or military things that need doing. I also wanted to give him a quick update on where we were.”

“I thought I said ‘professional detachment’,” Hotch sighed. 

“He’s the one who invited us.” Gideon shrugged, “I just told him we found some leads in his past and we are working on a rudimentary profile. But are still yet to determine whether this is personal or serial.” 

“Fine.” Hotch said, crossing his arms. Just then a tall brunette in cherry red heels and fitted dress with a cherry red belt knocked on the door. 

“Stephen said you wanted to see me.” She said as she opened the door. She looked put together, but her eyes were slightly red and puffy, and her make-up was newly administered. 

“Jenny Lewis?” JJ walked over and shook her hand, slipping into her role immediately, “Jennifer Jareau, or JJ, I am normally Press Liaison for the BAU. I take it you are the ARC’s version of that.”

“Ah, Yes,” Jenny replied, “Well, PR, cover stories, dealing with the media and witnesses. Keeping everything, you know, a secret. Which reminds me, I have contracts for all of you to sign regarding the official secrets act. Now that you know the secret, you need to promise to keep it.” 

“I promise, we will,” JJ assured her, “But we also were told that we could use you to talk to suspects. We don’t have jurisdiction here.”

“I can help you with whatever you need,” Jenny replied, “But I’m not a cop so I won’t know what to ask them.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Hotch said, “One of us will be with you. We just need you to clear us to talk to them, Lester says you have jurisdiction through to the Home Office.” Jenny nodded. “Good, that will get people to talk to us, from there we can do the questioning.” 

“Ok,” The PR woman said, “Where do we start?”


	4. Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor's last few hours, and previous day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW, Sexual abuse
> 
> Protective Alphas
> 
> Dinosaurs referenced - Late Jurassic period  
> BTW- Natural history Museum has an awesome online encyclopaedia for dinosaurs - Connor would love it. although i like to believe Connor's is much more detailed. complete with facts like the Mosasaur can be fended off with an oar. 
> 
> https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/juravenator.html - mini theropod  
> https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/camarasaurus.html - giant Herby  
> https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/saurophaganax.html - "King of Lizard Eaters"

The last thing Connor remembered was being very warm and feeling incredibly safe between his mates who had recently marked him. A jolt of pain woke him from his heat induced slumber. He tried to squirm back into Nick’s chest next to him only to find a set of arms wrapped around his chest and another set wrapped around his legs. “He’s waking up” A voice hissed. 

“Give it to him” Said a faint voice from somewhere he couldn’t place. Connor tried to struggle but felt a needle peirce his flesh. He felt his body grow burn with an intense heat. His limbs felt heavy and his mind grew fuzzy. The person on his legs said something he couldn’t quite make out 

“Think… gave… wrong...” Connor thought he heard. 

“Moving?” Said the faint voice “-ts fine”. The hands manhandled painfully somewhere that felt cool and he saw familiar foliage replace the familiar bedchamber. He couldn’t place what was happening, but it seemed as though someone was taking him somewhere. 

A rush of wind, then a painful impact, and a face full of soft grass. “- Heat!” One man yelled

A hand grabbed his hair and forced him up. He heard a van door slide open. He was thrown inside. “ - him.” he was vaguely aware that he was still naked after the activities with his Mates the previous night. He was also still wet. Something familiar was shoved into him from behind. The other man put a blindfold on him and a ball gag in his mouth. Connor choked and squeezed. The man in him hit his head against the car door. “Useful…” said the man in charge, who had shut the car door behind them. “Lock…” someone started the car and something hard hit his head. The man in him took the hard piece of metal and inserted one end into the Tech’s urethra. Connor tried to struggle but the drug was still making him heavy and complacent. He felt something cold wrap around the base of his shaft and around his balls. 

There were a half dozen lashes from something that seemed very much like a whip, and Connor’s faint struggling stopped. The man next to him in the van tied his hands behind him and his legs and the ankles. About an hour on the road Connor could feel the path get bumpy. He had started to drop off to an exhausted restless doze when the van door opened and he smelt smoke next to him. He could faintly feel the warmth of a fire close by. He tried to wake up when he felt a large hand grab his thighs and pull him towards the van door. He struggled uselessly as he was pushed to his back and his left knee was pushed to the floor, displaying the inside of his thigh. He could feel the cold night air on his cock, the metal cooling him from far inside. He shivered. Then he screamed. He was on fire. They had set him alight. Had they? No, he couldn’t feel flames. But he was burning. It radiated from his inner thigh, a few centimeters from his pelvis. He couldn’t feel what had happened. He couldn’t move his legs. He couldn’t see it. He couldn’t scream. He cried. Tears ran hot and fast down his face under his blindfold. The burning eased. He heard a sizzle and something metal hit him as it was tossed in the back of the van. No one got in back with him. He passed out as they started moving again.

**  
  
**

When Connor awoke there were four things he noticed immediately. First, he wasn’t blindfolded anymore. Second, he was still naked. Third, he wasn’t alone. Fourth, he was hanging from a meat hook, in a dark cellar. He also wasn’t cold. He must still be in his heat. He looked at the other people in there with him. A few of them looked vaguely familiar. They were all naked, and they all had old brands on the inside of their left thigh. He looked down. He saw an angry red burn there. That must have been what they did last night. He studied them all. They all smelled like Omegas, and they all looked extraordinarily thin. He thought he could make out mating bites on at least one or two of the four that were there with him. He tried to say something, then noticed that he, like the rest of them, had a ball gag in his mouth. Clearly no one was supposed to be talking. 

A door opened and a familiar face came into the dark cellar. Tommy Kranz. Ah, bugger, this wasn’t good. His foster brother was a right bastard of an Omega who couldn’t do anything, and he took it out on everyone else. The Kranz house was decent in all respects, all things considering. They gave him a place to sleep, he shared with 3 other boys, they all had enough food, he went to school. Even managed to pass his GCSEs a few years early. But their middle child Thomas, was an abusive sod. They were middle income, owned their own store, but they were never ok that Tommy was an Omega. They took in Omegas from other families, and were perfectly decent to Connor. Gave him less food than the others, he never got new clothes like the alphas, always had the threatbarren quilts, last pick of the supplies, but that wasn’t uncommon treatment for an omega. Omegas were often considered lower class. They had a tendency to be worse to Tommy because He was his flesh and blood. More verbally abusive. To Connor and the Omega fosters, they mostly just didn’t talk to or didn’t acknowledge them at all. Less abuse, more neglect. But he had been through worse. So all in all, the Kranz household was decent. Or, as decent as he knew households to be. Tommy made it worse. He took his anger out on the Omega fosters that came through. On a sexual level. He never actually had sexual intercourse with them, just sexually abused them because that’s what he was always told Omegas were for. He was always told that Omegas were sexual playthings. So he experimented sexually with the omegas of the house. Because they were treated better than him. Marginally. 

He wasn’t sure what Tommy was getting into these days, but it couldn’t have been good. Tommy stood before Connor and smirked at him. “Not so high and mighty now without your Alphas to protect ya, huh Connor?” He asked with a jeer. “Don’tcha worry, I got someone nice who will take care of ya.”

He took Connor by the hair and unhooked him from the meathook. He dragged him up the stairs and threw him in front of a large, powerful looking Alpha. “1,000 quid for 2 hours.” Tommy said to the Alpha. “You can do whatever you like to him.” Then he whispered in Connor’s ear. “You have a busy Heat, be ready.” 

Connor was dragged (again by the hair) to a place that was barely definable as a room. There was a thin mattress on the floor and that was about it. Unless you counted the large crate in the corner with a lock on it. The large customer smirked at Conner as he threw the small naked omega onto the mattress and walked over to the crate. Connor had expected toys, these, however, were torture devices. His eyes widened as he saw knives, whips with pieces of glass, broken bottles, a blowtorch, cigars, car batteries, hammers, and dozens of other ways to injure someone. The man took out a knife and the butane torch. “Imma carve my name in your pretty flesh.” He said, running his tongue over the flat part of the knife. Connor tried to squirm away. “Looks like you wasn’t trained proper” He laughed. “That’s ak, i like ta train ‘em meself”. He unzipped his jeans and turned Connor to his stomach. The Omega felt his hands be lifted above his head and latched to something metal, then the Alpha thrust himself in hard and fast. He thrust in and out a few times before staying in balls deep and turning on the butane torch. And picking up the knife. He set the knife to the boy’s skin and felt a squirm. “Stop now, or I’ll slice yer throat,” he said, moving the knife to the geek’s throat in a flash and feeling him freeze in terror. “Yer a good boy, yeah?” he thrust himself in and out of the Omega’s arse a few more times slowly, and gently stroked the boy’s hair with the hand holding the knife. Then he thrust hard all the way in again and stayed there, and brought the knife back to its previous position at Connor’s waist. Connor could feel him making long, deep cuts on his back. But he stayed frozen. Then he felt a hot flame heating his back where the cuts were. He started crying again, but stayed where he was. The flame turned off, and alpha behind him pulled out of him. 

The customer flipped him around, without releasing his shackled hands from the hook on the wall, making Connor’s arms twist painfully. The alpha took the knife and released the tech’s legs from their restraints, looking around for something else to tie them to. Failing to find something, he tied one leg, calf to thigh, and left the other one loose. He took the knife in hand again “Imma knot you real nice.” He ran the knife down the omega’s face gently, leaving a thin red line from temple to chin. He entered again and Connor felt something build up in him. It was an unfamiliar sensation. He had never been knotted before, both Nick and Stephen had agreed to wait longer to cross that final step with him. Not to mention yesterday’s heat had been brought on suddenly and if they hadn’t agreed on making the mark this heat ages ago, that wouldn’t have probably been postponed as well. Nick and Stephen cared about his consent and condition far too much to take advantage like that. Knotting without coherent consent was definitely one of the things they never would have ever considered. This Alpha, however, wasn’t his Alpha. It wasn’t one who cared about his Omega. He wasn’t in bed with Nick Cutter or Stephen Hart. He was back to his childhood. An Omega being seen as a sex object, to be taken advantage of when any Alpha feels like doing so. And this Alpha wanted to knot him. He could feel the knot settle painfully in him, filling his hole and expanding so that nothing could come out. The Alpha seemed bored now that he had successfully knotted the Omega beneath him though. He lay down the knife and butane torch and took off his belt. Connor closed his eyes, waiting for the whip. Metal findings slammed into his torso, slicing into the skin. He gasped at the unexpected heightened level of pain. He hadn’t been expecting the man to use that side of the belt. The buckle crashed into his torso again, and again, crisscrossing his chest with cuts and slashes from the belt. Connor could hear the man laughing and his breath grow rapid in excitement. The whipping stopped and he felt a stab above his pelvis. The knife turned in the wound before it was pulled out. There was another stab in his thigh, then another in his shoulder. Each specifically missing areas that could be lethal. He heard the knife drop then felt something similar to a metal fist slam into his rib cage. He coughed and gagged. He felt himself losing consciousness as another fist struck him in his diaphragm. All he remembered thinking before passing out was wondering how he got from chasing dinosaurs the previous day, to this dirty mattress, wherever it was.

* * *

The Previous Day 

It all started when the anomaly alert sounded telling them that they had to fly all the way up to Manchester and cordon off an entire football stadium. It got worse when not one, not two but _three_ different species of creature came through. The herbivorous species of creatures from the late Triassic period that came through were not small, so even though they didn’t want to make them food they were pretty dangerous. In the end they had quite a bit of trouble getting the dozen Camarasauruses back through the anomaly. When they got there a Saurophaganax was terrorising the football players, had killed a ref, and eaten a vendor. Stephen had brought the tech with him to round up the large herbivores, but at some point they got separated and he ended up facing the “King of Lizard Eaters” himself. 

Becker and his men were working to try and tranq it, but it was resisting the medicine or attacking and dodging the SFs. Cutter and Abby were both at the beast’s feet when it took off and broke through the stadium walls. The 12m long lizard was about to run into the streets when Connor called it back, as bait. While it meant that the SF’s were able to take it down, Cutter wasn’t very happy.

“Damn it, Connor!” He said, smacking the Omegas hat and pulling him in for a hug. “Stop doing idiotic stunts like that.” Becker and the SF’s got the Saurophaganax onto something with wheels so they could heave it through the anomaly. Abby had taken off to help with the pack of Herbivores wandering the halls of the stadium.

Stephen ran back through the vomitorium and out to the field with a look that was half frantic, half angry. “You did it again!” he said, going up to where Conner and Nick were hugging and joining the embrace, pulling the geek towards himself. “I could smell Nick from all the way in the stands. We have told you not to do that.” He growled. The two alphas released Connor from their embrace. 

“The Saurophaganax was going to go into Manchester!” Connor said, trying to be defensive, but submitting under his pack leader and second leader’s dominance. He tilted his head slightly and looked down. 

Cutter nuzzled exposed neck for a moment then pulled away, letting Stephen do it as well. Connor could feel his body filling with fever. 

“Omega,” Stephen said with a wicked smile. “Your heat is coming.”

Connor coyly looked at them in turn. “Is it?” He said with a smirk. “I hadn’t noticed.” 

Nick shut down the expanding pheromones at once with a look. “Sorry, alpha sir.” Connor said, looking down submissively.

“When we finish here,” Cutter said into Connor’s ear, “the three of us will go back to mine, yeah?” Connor flushed. “And we will have all the fun we want.” Then he straightened and said in a stern tone. “But work is no place for those types of pheromones.” 

“Let’s go,” Stephen said, grabbing Connor by the gloved hand and taking him with to go find the Camarasauruses. 

“Carts!” Connor said excitedly. 

“What?” Stephen asked.

“You know, those mini motor carts stadiums have for old people and the like.” Connor tried to explain. “We should try to use those to herd the Camarasauruses through.”

“Brilliant.” Stephen said, mussing Connor’s hair and pulling out his mobile. “Abby, are there motor carts that you can use to herd them?” A few moments later they saw a dozen long necks approaching and they moved out of the way. 

“I already thought of that,” She said as she drove past in tight weaves behind the dinosaurs. 

“Are there any more carts?” Connor asked. Abby nodded with a grin, and she pointed over her shoulder to where they were. The Omega ran to find one. 

“Careful of their tails!” She shouted after him. Stephen got into the cart next to her. 

“Were they all together when you found them?” He asked

“Mostly,” She replied, “One or two was straying away from the pack, but not too far. They are like elephants, central heard, and they can go a few meters in any direction, but they have to know where the rest are at all times. In narrow corridors like this, not much room to spread out. They are probably confused and just want to go home.”  
  
“It’s far too cold for them here anyway,” Stephen said with a nod, “let’s get them back.” They heard a cart coming behind them and saw Connor driving a similar cart as the one Abby was in. Abby stopped weaving and drove straight as the geek drove parallel. Connor drove closer, approaching the tail of one of the dinosaurs. 

“Stay back Connor,” Abby said, “Don’t get too close, and don’t hit their --- “ *WHAM!* The Camarasaurus that Connor was driving behind suddenly lifted its giant tail and whipped it right, slamming Connor in his cart to the floor. 

“CONNOR!” Stephen shouted, jumping out of the cart he was in and running over to the wreck. The cart was bent to the shape of the beast’s tail, the part of that was hit folding at a nearly 90 degree angle, Connor had been thrown out of the cart, hit the wall and then crumpled to the floor. Thankfully he wasn't under the disaster that once was a motor cart. “Becker!” He called for the captain, who thankfully wasn't too far away, because they were close to where the corridor opens out onto the field. As Becker walked over Stephen continued “We need a Medic!” Stephen didn’t want to move Connor’s head in case of a concussion, but he also didn’t want to leave him on the cold floor. He desperately wanted to pull the Omega into his lap and brush his hair away from his face. 

“Abby,” He asked, turning to her, still herding the animals, “What happened? I was watching, he wasn’t too close!”

“I don’t know,” She said, biting her lip, trying to watch them and do her job. “I guess the noise of the second motor cart made them nervous.”

Becker and one of his SF’s, Ditzy, came over with a medical bag, Cutter close behind. “What happened?” Cutter said to Stephen angrily. 

“Connor was helping Abby herd the animals with a second cart,” Stephen tried to explain, “he was far enough behind, but it suddenly just picked up its tail and knocked him aside.”

“Added duress from a second source after already having ample pressure from a first,” Cutter said with a nod, “Could have told you that would have made them anxious.” He turned to Ditzy, “Is he going to be ok?”

There was a call from the middle of the football field. “Becker!” Sarah’s voice was urgent, and the captain instantly ran over to the rest of the group. Cutter and Stephen however kept their eyes on Connor, noticing the drastic pheromone change in the boy. They looked at each other in concern. Ditzy looked at them, noticing their shared look.

“How many people know that Connor is an Omega?” He asked the Alphas. They looked surprised at the question. 

“Not many,” Stephen admitted. “I know Jenny and Abby know, but I also know that Connor is wary about telling other Alphas his condition. He told me that he only let Sarah know because she was a beta and it was after the group reveal.”

“Connor told Sarah?” Nick looked genuinely surprised at this news. “I didn’t think he personally told anyone but you, Stephen.” before Stephen could reply Cutter turned back to Ditzy. “Why?” he asked the Special Forces medic, “What’s his gender got to do with things?”

“Is he close to his heat?” Ditzy asked. The alphas nodded. “It seems the accident may have prematurely induced his heat, I would get him safe, and quick. It looks like there is nothing more than a concussion and some bruises, and, Oh, Hello, Connor.” he said, as Connor’s eyes fluttered open, looking at the three alpha’s around him. He instinctively shrank into himself and let out a pitiful whine. 

“Hey, It’s ok little Omega,” Stephen said, putting his hand out and caressing the boy’s cheek. Connor, nuzzled the palm in front of him, seeking out the familiar scent. Nick carded one hand through Connor’s bangs, pushing them to the side and put the other to his neck, caressing the scent gland at the Omega’s throat. 

“Looks like you are done for today.” Nick chuckled lightly.

“One moment,” Ditzy said, pulling out a penlight, “Connor,” he said gently, trying not to scare the boy who had retreated into his submissive persona. “Can you look at me for a moment?” Connor looked at Nick, then at Stephen, both of whom gave him a nod, then Connor looked at the medic. “Look at my nose” A small bright light shone into each of the large brown eyes in turn, then flicked away. “Good, very good,” the medic gently took a hold of the boy’s right arm, hearing the two other alphas soothing their omega and keeping him from squirming away. “Does this hurt?” Ditzy asked. He watched the tech’s face as he searched the hand within his using his fingers to feel around for inflammation and bruising. He moved to the left arm and hand, he saw a wince when he moved up the wrist and forearm. Pulling off the fingerless glove, he noticed layers of scars, the oldest at least 8 years old, running all the way up to the middle of his forearm. Some were inflamed and looked painful and no more than a few months old. His hand felt puffy and bruised all over, crushed from being between the lizard’s tail and the metal cart. The medic’s mind raced trying to figure out how to deal with the problem. 

“First we need to get him somewhere out of the open, his pheromones will start to attract every Alpha in the vicinity.” Ditzy stated. 

“And could seep through the anomaly and bring through more carnivores.” Cutter added. 

“Help me get him to one of the helicopters so we can start treating his injuries.” The medic continued as if Nick hadn’t spoken. 

Ditzy moved to pick up the Omega but Connor shrank into himself and whined again, showing his neck in submission. “Alpha…” he cried in desperation. 

“I’ll do it,” Stephen said, then turning to Connor he crooned sweetly, “it’s ok, Omega, your Alphas are here, we got you.” 

Connor looked up at Stephen and Nick not recognising them. Stephen offered his wrist’s scent gland, which Connor hesitantly sniffed then, recognising as safe and familiar, started to nuzzle and purr slightly. Nick let Connor sniff his own wrist and got a similar reaction. Once the Omega in Connor had realised the familiar Alphas around him, he allowed himself to be moved to the allocated location. 

Becker barely noticed the four move to the Helicopter, it seemed that the change in scent had caused the camasauruses to change behaviour from their steady waltz path towards the anomaly to almost a full panicked stampede that was far less organized and went everywhere but towards the glowing fracture in space-time. Abby, Becker and his team had a job trying to calm the giant herbivores down and direct them home.

As soon as the scent had been mostly cloistered in the car, however, they had calmed down. Finally managing to slip through the distortion in time to their familiar surroundings. No one noticed the tiny carnivore that had slipped through, following the enticing sweet scent that was still leaking through. 

The medic and lab tech were seated in the back seat, with the geek laid between them, the omega’s head on Stephen’s lap. Nick had climbed into the passenger’s seat, but was leaning through the gap in the front seats so he could watch intently and support his Omega as much as Stephen.

The three Alphas fussing over Connor didn’t notice that they had gotten into Becker’s Helicopter, which was unfortunate because Becker had a tendency to open one of the smaller windows on long flights. Especially when it was warm out. And no one had thought to check if it was all the way closed. It wasn’t until the small dinosaur was on the windshield of the ‘copter, growling furiously that Stephen noticed the whimpers becoming more and more frantic from Connor, who he was holding. 

The Omega had a habit to become mute when his omega traits became too strong, just lose the ability to speak. And when he had started to whine and whimper a few minutes earlier, Nick and Stephen just thought it was due to Ditzy fussing over his injured hand. As the sounds of distress grew in frequency and volume, the Omega’s free hand reaching out for Nick and grabbing at him, Stephen realised something else must have been bothering him. 

“Nick!!” Stephen shouted. Pointing at the windshield. 

“Juravenator,” Connor managed to get out, before burying his face in Stephen’s chest. Nick paled as he looked at the small theropod clacking on the vehicle’s largest window. It put its nose against the clear glass and snarled at the four people inside.

There wasn’t just one of the small carnivores now, but half a dozen. He could see more flooding through the anomaly towards them. 

“What the?-“ Ditzy sputtered. “Bugger..” he said, motioning up at the roof. “We are in the copter Becker flew.” 

“Right state we are in now.” Stephen said with anxiety, “what are we supposed to do?” 

They could hear tapping on the windows with the sharp claws, and more small feet clambering up and around the helicopter. “Someone will notice we are surrounded. As soon as they take care of the Camarasauruses and Saurophaganax.” Nick said, without much confidence. 

“But how will they be able to take care of three dozen tiny carnivorous theropods?” Stephen asked. 

“First question we should be asking,” Nick said, “Is how to keep them from getting in,” Connor’s hands clawed at his alpha again directing their attention to the open window. “Because if we don’t get Connor’s Omega smell contained, tiny as they are, those raptors won’t stay outside the aircraft for too much longer.” Cutter reached in his pocket and found his phone, quickly dialed a number and waited for it to connect. 

  
“Abby, get the keys to Becker’s chopper and bring any Beta SF’s to help. We have a Therapod problem.” He said to the girl on the other line. “Yeah, he will be fine, but the knock he took sent him into heat early, and some Juravenators have smelled it and been spilling through the Anomaly. They are small enough that you probably didn’t see them through the herd of camarasauruses.” Stephen heard him pause for a reply from the girl on the other end. “We have about 3 dozen or so. And soon they will get through the windows.” another pause. “We need the key because a window was left open, that’s what is calling the things to us in the first place. We need to close it.” Pause again. “I don’t think Connor told Becker yet. What? Yes! Let him tell him when he chooses to!” another pause. Then the phone was snapped shut. 

“Abby will be right over, with as many Betas as you SF’s have.” Cutter said to Ditzy. Then he said slightly warily. “You don’t know how many that is, do you?”  
  


Ditzy shook his head. “We haven’t ever actually stated who was what.” He said. “We took more of a ‘If you can do your job, I don’t care your gender’ type stance. Captain Ryan started it and no one ever looked back.” Ditzy now had Connor’s waistcoat open and shirt up, feeling his ribs. Stephen smoothed the Omega’s hair while it was still tucked into his chest, and Nick held his hand and rubbed his knee.

“His ribs are bruised, but none are broken, his hand is crushed, and the bones will need to be set and need a cast.” Ditzy said, continuing his examination, trying not to be distracted by the blanket of small carnivores covering the automobile. The layer darkened the inside of the van so Ditzy had to continue via touch. Stephen and Nick watched the medic work, a growl at the base of both of their throats. “I can’t see what I am doing, this is the only way to examine him.” Ditzy said, trying to placate the Alphas in front of him. Still, as the Alpha medic’s hands started moving down the Omega’s torso to his pelvis and down to each leg, the SF could feel the possessive looks from each of the not-yet-mated Alphas due to their Omega. “A cart landed on him after he got thrown into a wall,” Ditzy explained, knowing it wouldn’t ease the Alpha instincts within Stephen and Cutter, “I have to check to see what else is injured.” 

“Cutter!” Nick heard a familiar breathless voice shout, sounding far away. “I’m here! I got Becker’s keys!” 

“Abby!” He yelled back, looking around towards the animal trainer’s voice. “You need to figure out a way to get them to us!” He said. “Be careful! Those Therapods may be small, but they are carnivorous.” 

The three alphas in the car could practically hear the wheels turning in the Beta’s head. “Blade, Finn, I need you guys to help me over here.” She said to two of the SFs she must have brought with her.

  
  
“That answers that question.” Ditzy said. “Never thought Blade would be a Beta though.” He said more to himself than anyone else. 

They heard leaf blowers start up and the small dinosaurs get sucked away from the chopper. Nick felt a hand pat his and heard a giggle. He and Stephen looked down to see Connor giggling with his classic Connor smile, patting Nick’s arm with eyes bright and happy. He clearly figured out what Abby had done to get the Juravenators off the helicopter and was highly amused by it. The grin was so familiar that Stephen and Cutter chuckled back at him. 

A few moments later, the copter’s door was opened quickly and a set of keys was swiftly tossed inside. “We are going to go throw these guys back through the anomaly.” Abby said. “Take care of the geek!” She ran off. Cutter turned the engine on and closed the window. Slowly the small theropods stopped coming through the anomaly and the other Beta SFs (They couldn’t tell who, they could just see their backs) went back to the main area. 

Becker got things organised enough to let the Scientists go home, so half of the group flew back to the ARC. Ditzy accompanied them because Connor still needed a Medic, but not before giving Blade a knowing grin and salute. It was a joke among the SFs that after Becker, Blade was the most Alpha of all of them. Blade never agreed with the assessment, but he never denied it either. Honestly, Ditzy couldn’t care less, but he did think it was humorous. He had known Blade for so long, that he trusted him no matter what. He was slightly hurt that he had to find out that way, but really, as the team’s medical officer, he really should have known everyone’s gender to start with. 

They made it back to the ARC with no incidents. Lester heard that Connor was injured, and was miffed, but said nothing more. He told Connor to go get checked out with the med-bay and go home. It was nearly time for the day to end, so no one seemed to notice that Stephen and Cutter disappeared with Connor once he was cleared to leave. After a set of x-rays was taken and his hand was set and put in a cast. 

The three scientists arrived at Cutter’s house late, Connor was deep in the throes of his pre-heat and wanted nothing more than to nest in clothes that were ripe with the scent of Stephen and Nick, but Nick made him sit down and eat, and then Stephen pulled him upstairs for a shower before they all finally made it to the bed. Once in bed Stephen kissed Connor so deeply, the boy felt like he was melting, yet instead of falling down into the mattress, he fell into Nick, who was behind him, cradling the Omega and pulling him close, using the time to scent his neck and start undressing him. The Alphas pushed the boy down to the mattress and kissed down his body identically before undressing themselves. Connor grabbed at Stephen’s shirt with one hand as the Alpha disrobed and pulled it close to his face, breathing in the tracker’s scent, with the other he grabbed for Nick’s shirt and did the same. Stephen unbuckled Connor’s pants as the omega turned himself around to present to his mates. 

“You are beautiful Connor.” Nick purred, running his hand down the geek’s back and newly unveiled arse. He started kissing down the pale back, lingering as he approached the wet opening. He flicked his tongue inside and a moan came from the boy. 

Stephen was going up the other way, he was kissing up Connor’s chest, half concealed against the mattress, and lingered around the scent glands on Connor’s neck. “Our clever little Omega” Stephen crooned. “Stop getting in such trouble.” He scolded gently. “Think of your poor Alphas.” Connor looked at him with his doe eyes out of focus, whimpering.

“Yes, Alpha.” Connor said breathlessly. “Please… Alpha!” He moaned again as Nick stopped lapping up his juices and unbuckled his trousers. 

“What do you want, my little omega?” Nick asked, already knowing the answer. 

“You,” he whined, “My Alphas, I need you! Please!”

“Good boy” Said Stephen, removing his own trousers. He patiently waited for Nick to gently enter their Omega. Stephen leaned down and captured Connor’s lips with his, as Cutter thrust rhythmically in and out at a slow and steady rate. Connor squirmed at the gentle touch. Both Stephen and Nick and realised early on in their relationship with Connor that some sexual abuse had happened in the boy’s past that had made him crave painful and rough sex. While sexual abuse was not uncommon for Omegas, neither of the Alphas wanted to hurt Connor, and hated that someone in the past had made him crave that now. Therefore they always treated the boy with as much gentleness as they possibly could in the bedroom, no matter how hard it was on them. Stephen waited for Nick to open Connor up further, and finally the superior alpha pulled Connor into his lap. Stephen approached and cautiously added himself into the mix. Connor gasped with pleasure at the added girth and nuzzled himself into Stephen’s neck, Nick’s shirt still grasped in his hand. 

“Please, Alphas.” He gasped, as they thrust within him slowly gaining speed with a docile cadence. “Mark me. Knot me, Impregnate me!” They looked at each other over Connor and nodded. The three of them had agreed after Connor’s last heat that they would mark him this heat, or else neither one of them would consider taking Connor’s Heat request seriously. They had discussed the idea before. Neither had any intentions of knotting him, and they planned on making him keep taking birth control, at least for a little while longer. They would oblige in one request though. They opened their mouths at the same time, and bit down on the scent glands on opposite sides of Connor’s neck. Nick on the right, Stephen on the left. Connor moaned in ecstasy and orgasmed as he felt the blood from the bites run down his throat. 

Nick pulled out, leaving Connor to Stephen while he went to go get a first aid kit. Stephen kept the pace within Connor, loving and sweet, kissing him along his hairline, around his jaw, and capturing his lips again, exploring the Omegas mouth with his tongue as if desperate to memorise it. 

Nick returned not long after with some gauze, bandages and a wet towel. He cleaned the marks, cleaned up the blood that had dripped down the tech’s back and chest, and applied the plasters to the wounds. Stephen then laid the omega back down on the bed and Nick got his chance to kiss their omega on the lips, tongue slipping into the boy’s mouth, eliciting another small moan. Connor’s eyes drooped with exhaustion, Stephen took the wet towel from Nick and started wiping down their precious lover from the fluids that had been expelled, both by the boy and the two Alphas. Nick started to systematically clean within the Omega while Connor dropped off to sleep. Soon all three of them were sleeping, Stephen on the left, Connor in the center, and Nick on the right. It had been a long and trying day, but the Alphas had finally marked their Omega, and they fell asleep, each with one arm resting protectively over him, reassured that no one could harm him now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really mean to Connor in this chapter. Sorry... Also, I am not sure if i got the yorkshire accent quite right. sorry again
> 
> I don't have a beta, for any of my stories. if anyone wants to be my beta, please let me know


	5. Getting Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BAU finds a suspect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW; Graphic image descriptions (mutilation descriptions)
> 
> Two chapters in one/two days 
> 
> Honestly Ive been working on these chapters for a while, but I just finished them both today. so here, my treat

Chapter 5

“Sir, I think I found something you should see.” Garcia said after a few hours of cross referencing names.    
  
“What have you found?” Hotch asked, coming around to her computer, looking over her shoulder. 

“I ran a list of Omegas who have been reported missing specifically by Alpha mates across the UK within the last 10 years and were categorised as going for a higher education or being in a field that needs a higher education. That coupled with a background of foster care in the greater yorkshire area gave me a list of 8 names” She looked up and seemed to remember the ARC’s PR coordinator standing alongside JJ. “Um, British Beauty, you may want to step out for this bit, we may be getting into some logistics that are going to get certifiably disgusting.” Jenny looked slightly startled at the address while the rest just chuckled at Garcia’s antics. Then she turned and left the room

“That is oddly specific.” JJ said picking up a pen and going to the butcher paper after the door closed, taking notes on victimology. “So we are looking at intelligent omegas who are mated and coming from yorkshire, and started out in the system.” 

“Do any of the victims share foster homes?” asked Emily, “Is there any overlap, or cross over?”

Garcia typed furiously. “Yes,” She said, “5, between 1982-1998, 5 of the victims stayed at a single foster house, for some length of time. Four of the victims are still missing, one of them turned up dead 6 months ago. Sheila Turner, missing for two years. The tox screen says that ultimately she died from a prolonged heat induced state and pregnancy hormones were in her blood. The coroner's report indicated that she had recently given birth, plus -, yeah,” She looked away from her computer screen. “Does someone else want to tell you lovelies, what happened because I would prefer not to sully my mind with those horrible pictures…” Morgan, who was sitting next to Garcia waved his hand. 

“Give it here Momma.” She pushed the laptop over to him. “Ok, this guy was an extreme sexual sadist, he liked to use electricity and power tools to keep his Omegas in check. There were anal fisures indicating a homemade masturbatory tool that he could attach some sort of battery to so he could electricute his victim, and it was lumpy and seemed rather sharp. Almost like he made it out of a block of wood and nails. He also seemed to have a thing with carpentry tools. He pierced her nipples with screws, and there are electrical burns, similar in the vaginal area. Many of the scars are very old. It also seemed like he intended on keeping her for a long time. I think he wants to completely destroy and humiliate these Omegas, Hotch. He cut her legs off, look. But they were fully healed before she died. It must have happened soon after she was taken. One of her arms was completely cut off too. The other one was half cut off. It’s like he was cutting her apart piece by piece. After so long, that must have been all that was left, and she died of other complications before he killed her himself.” Morgan looked once more over the photos. “There is something that doesn’t quite add up though” Morgan said. “There is a brand. It’s placed on her inner upper thigh. It’s old, and looks incomplete, it was cut with the leg.” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t brand something just to cut it later. I think someone else branded her, or cut and killed her. She may have been sold.”

Morgan closed the autopsy photos and gave the computer back to Garcia. He gathered Reid up in his arms for a moment, breathing in his mate’s smell, calming himself down before turning back to the team and listening to the rest of the team. Of course they had been part of difficult cases before, but they had started to care about the latest Omega that had gone missing, at least tangentially. They were in his workspace, became friends with his Mates, and bonded with his team. This one would be especially difficult for them if they found him hurt or killed. Thankfully it looked like this unsub liked to hang on to his captives. Which could have been a good or bad thing. Depending on how you looked at it. 

“Do we have enough for a geographic profile?” Hotch was asking. 

“The victims are from all over the UK, and I mean, all over.” Garcia said. “The age range is much more narrow by comparison. We have over the course of 2 years, 5 abductions. Trisha Wilken - 20 - Medical Student from Bath, Cameron Lyle - 25 - Solicitor from Glasgow, Katherine Cobb - 23 - Phd Student from Manchester, Alexander Falen - 27 - Publicist from London. And Sheila Turner was 22 and a pharmacist from Kent. Then of course, we add Connor Temple - 26 - government scientist from London. If we look at the timeline Sheila was first at nearly 2 years to the day, then Trisha was 1.5 years, Cameron was 1 year ago, Katherine was 6 months ago, Alexander was 8 weeks ago.”

“And they are all from Southern Yorkshire?” Reid asked, patting Morgan’s head absently and pulling out a map of the British Isles. “It’s not about where these victims are now, it’s who they are, and where they are from.”   
  
“The past will be everything for this unsub.” Emily agreed. “He has been following the Omega’s he met in foster care since then. He must have either run a home, or been one of the other children.”

“He feels betrayed by the system.” Gideon says, speaking at last. “Whatever these omegas were able to achieve, he never got, and he thinks he deserved it. It’s clear in his message with the saw mask. He doesn’t think they deserve what they have, and so he is going to test them. This guy is an Omega. The level of extreme sadism he displays tells us that he is an Omega male. He is located in Southern Yorkshire, and he is starting to devolve.” He turned to Reid. “We need to center our geographical profile around the foster homes these victims lived at when they were children.” Gideon then turned to Garcia. “Pull that up immediately and give it to Reid.”

“At once, my liege!” Garcia said. 

“JJ, you and Jenny start talking to the social worker in charge of Connor’s case,” Hotch said, assigning duties. “Garcia, look for overlapping social workers from the other victims, foster homes, and children that may have had a stint with the other victims in their foster homes while they were children. Look specifically for male blue collar omega workers. Possibly with at least one or two friends or relatives that they are close to. Maybe someone who has been in prison in the past. Emily, You and I will brief Becker on where we are going and why, we may end up needing some of his team. Probably if he could spare, at least 3. One with medical training.” Then he turned to Morgan. “I need you to talk to Nick and Stephen, we will need at least one of them when we find Connor, who will still be in heat. He will need one of his Alphas.” He thought for a moment. “Which reminds me, Garcia, the mates to the other Omega victims, do you have their contact information?” She nodded. “Gideon, why don’t you and Lester contact the rest of the Mates and ask them to join us, somewhere, it doesn’t matter where. Lester can figure that out, so it doesn’t compromise security. Not all their Omegas may be alive, or undamaged, but those that are, will need their Alphas around if they are in fact in a state of induced Heat. And Sheila Turner’s Mate, if she has indeed given birth, contact her Mate, tell them the news, and see if they want to take responsibility for the pup. We also need to see if Lester can get us to Yorkshire, we have a jet, we just need the clearance.” He looked at Reid, “You will continue the Geographical profile on the victims foster houses, narrowing down where they could be now.” 

Everyone nodded, JJ went to the printer waiting for information to be printed off, Morgan left the room, Gideon waited patiently for his information to be printed after JJ’s, and Prentiss and Hotch left to find Becker and the SFs. Reid went through the paper maps he had brought, pulled out one of the Yorkshire area, and spread it over the lab table, then waited for his information to be printed.

**  
  
**

  
  


Becker was in his office when Hotch and Emily came to find him. “Captain Becker?”

Becker looked up “Agent Hotchner, Agent Prentiss.” Becker said politely. “Any news on Connor?”

“Yes,” Hotch said. “We believe the unsub we are looking for is working out of southern Yorkshire.” 

Becker’s eyebrows raised in surprise

“We think he is either in connection with the foster families or other foster children Conner lived with when he was growing up.” Emily explained. Becker’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. Obviously this was news to him. 

“No one her knew he was raised in foster care, from what I understand.” Hotch said, watching Becker’s reaction.

“Well, I came on fairly recently.” Becker started, “But from what I can understand, no one really knows that much about his past. Cutter is his medical proxy, but I don’t even think he knew much more than that Conner had a strained relationship with folks at home.”

“I thought they were Mates.” Emily put in. 

“Yeah,” Becker said, nodding, “That was news to me. But I don’t think Stephen or Cutter knew.” Becker laughed slightly. “Connor talks all the time. But he doesn’t really talk about himself at all.” 

Emily and Hotch looked at each other. They both knew who that sounded like. For a moment they wondered if Reid could have a similarly tragic backstory as the one they just found out about in Connor Temple. They pushed the thought to the side. “We came to you because Lester assured us that you and your men could help us when we confront the Unsub.” Hotch said getting back on point. “Normally we use LEOs, but we are working outside our normal parameters for this, so we hope you can help.” 

“Anything for Connor.” Becker said. “We will need to keep a few men here, in case of an Anomaly alert, but I can have up to 5 men at your side as soon as you need.” 

Hotch nodded. “We need to go over a few more things first but -”

“HOTCH!!!” Hotch’s head whipped around. 

“Garcia?” He shouted back trying to locate the voice that was calling through the halls. 

“Where are you?” The voice grew fainter and it was clear Garcia had become lost. “This place is friggen HUGE! HOLY SHITFUCKS! Mammoth!” 

Emily giggled as Hotch shook his head slightly amused. “Which way to the menagerie?” He asked Becker. 

There was a small smile on Becker’s lips as he directed them down the hall and down two flights of stairs. 

They found Garcia chatting with the small thin blond animal behavioral specialist from before. “Ahem” Hotch said and Garcia jumped. 

“Hotch!” She said smiling at him. “I got lost, found the mammoth, and then Abby started telling me about how they brought him back here. It’s a pretty fun story.” 

“Connor helped trap him in a lory.” She said with a shrug. “I lured him in with elephant pee.” 

“Did you have something for me?” Hotch asked, “or did you just come over here to make friends with your british counterpart?” Emily compared the bright blond hair on the two women and laughed. 

“Right.” She said. “One of the missing persons I previously identified - Cameron Lyle, turned up as a John Doe 8 months ago in a morgue in Yorkshire. I just made the connection. He had a brand on his thigh.” Abby noticeably paled. “Oh!” Garcia said, seeing Abby’s reaction. “Probably should have waited until we were back with the rest to say that.” 

“Cameron Lyle,” Emily mused. “He went missing a year ago right? That doesn’t make sense. There was one other who was kidnapped before him who has yet to turn up.” 

“And two besides Connor to turn up after” Hotch added. “What was the condition of the body like?” He asked. “Anything like that of Sheila Turner?” 

“The only similarity is the brand on the leg,” Garcia said. 

“Morgan may be right.” Hotch said. “We could be looking at someone who traffics Omegas.”

“But why brand someone you are going to sell?” Garcia asked. 

“Trafficking rings aren’t just about buying and selling people.” Hotch said matter of factly. “In this case, it could just be about selling an omega’s heat.” 

“But not just any omega.” Emily put in.

“No.” Hotch thought out loud. “These specific Omegas. The Omegas that got out, and made a life for themselves.” 

“Looks like we have our profile,” Emily said.

“Must have been someone who lived in those houses. Probably not another foster.” Hotch mused. “Garcia, look for any registered foster families in the area that had biological children living in the house during the time frame that these victims would have been there. Specifically Omega children.” 

“What is this guy doing to Connor?” Abby said quietly. Garcia, Hotch and Emily all looked up at her, realising that she was there and had just heard everything they said. 

“Hopefully, We can get him out before anything too bad happens.” Emily said, trying to be reassuring without giving away too many details. “With this information, we should be able to find him soon, I promise.” She reached over and squeezed one of the hands that was clenched in fear on top of the reports. 

Abby flew out of her lab and sprinted down the hall “SARAH!” She called down the hall. 

The three BAU agents looked at each other and made their way back to their workspace. 

They found Spencer bent over a map with dozens of dots marking up the surface. 

They had just sat down when Lester and Gideon walked into the room. 

“I understand there has been a break in the case.” Lester said. “There is evidence that Connor is in Yorkshire and there are other victims of this kidnapper as well?” he asked

Hotch nodded in the affirmative.

“Why did no one connect the kidnappings?” Lester asked

“The victims were from different parts of the country” Hotch said simply, “The time frame was spread too far apart, and the two deaths were due to different reasons.” 

“Two?” Lester said. “Gideon only mentioned one”

“Garcia just connected a second kidnapping to a john doe in a morgue in Yorkshire.” Emily said. “The COD’s were completely different. The only thing connecting the two were the brands on the thigh and that they were in the same age range.”    
  
“They also had both given birth.” Garcia put in. 

Hotch looked at her. “You didn’t mention that.” 

“I didn’t get a chance to.” She said simply. “Could he be using these Omegas for a heat trafficking ring taking the pups when they get pregnant?” She asked. Then shivered at the idea. Reid looked up from his map with gaunt eyes. Hotch went over to him and stood next to him. He placed one hand on Reid’s shoulder to calm the Omega. Hotch knew that Spencer always got anxious when it came to Omegas being abused and mistreated for fun. 

“It could very well be part of it.” Hotch agreed.

“Either way, it looks like there are two dead mated Omegas with pups that need looking after, and three more that are missing, not including our Connor?” Lester summarised. 

Emily nodded. 

“So mates need to be contacted.” Lester continued, nodding. “Yes, I would be happy to help with that. Obviously we can’t bring them here. We could ask them to come to the Home Office though.” 

“Not all of them are from London.” Garcia put in. “When Hotch said that they were from all over the country, He wasn’t lying. One was taken from Canterbury, One from Bath, another from Glasgow, another from Manchester, only one besides Connor was living in London.” 

“I got where in Yorkshire Connor is from” JJ said walking into the room looking at her notes, not looking at what was around her. Jenny grabbed her arm before she crashed into Lester in the doorway. “Oh, I’m sorry Sir.” She said with a flush. 

“Pardon us, Lester,” Jenny said, with a smile. 

“Garcia,” JJ continued going around the table to Garcia, “Look at families from Doncaster down to Sheffield.” Garcia nodded and typed

“Got a name,” She said. “Connie and Jasper Kranz, had two boys, an Alpha and Omega, the Alpha is on the Sheffield council, the Omega works in a small auto repair shop in Doncaster, ouch, he has been an assistant mechanic for 5 years.” she looked up “isn’t probation on a mechanic job like 6 months? How is someone still an assistant for 5 years?”

“It’s him,” Gideon said confidently. “The mechanic. Blue collar job, always overlooked. Probably smarter than people think he is. Was never able to overcome the stigma of his gender. He doesn’t do anything personally to these Omegas, he just sells them to highly sadistic Alphas and allows them to do whatever they want. Probably even provides the tools.” Lester looks sick. “Always has at least one Omega in heat, or in an induced heat. He chooses Omegas from his life that were able to overcome hardships that he faced himself and never got past. All those omegas he kidnapped were foster children who stayed in his home as a child.” 

“I doubt the abuse started now.” Morgan put in from the door. “He probably abused all the omegas that came through, in some way.” 

“Is this the house he only stayed one year at?” Emily asked Garcia. 

“I hate to break it to you my divine goddess,” She said sadly, “But no, he was there for three years.” Reid winced and nuzzled the hand Hotch still had resting on his shoulder. 

“Find any and all addresses you have connected to this guy and anyone associated with him as soon as possible.” Hotch said to Garcia. 

“Right away, sir!” 

“We need to go to Doncaster ASAP.” He said to Lester. “But we should also have the three missing omega’s mates close by, in case we find them alive and they need comfort. We should also have either Nick or Stephen in a similar position.” 

“Give me 20 minutes, I shall have all mates contacted and transport in Doncaster arranged.” He said swiftly. He motioned to Jenny and left the room, the PR woman hot on his heels. 

**  
  
**

Ten minutes later Garcia had an address and Lester had news from mates. “They will meet you at the Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS,” He said. “I have helicopters ready to take you lot to an airfield where there are cars waiting for you. Becker has been briefed and is waiting with some of his men at the helicopters. Stephen and Nick are both coming. I couldn’t talk either of them down.” He sighed at the last statement. 

Hotch nodded “Reid, Gideon, I need you to stay here, Garcia, I am asking you to come along,” He saw her startled look. “We need as many Betas with us as possible, I will keep you out of the field, it will mostly be for when we go in to gather the Omegas. JJ, that’s why you are here too. Emily, I would like you to stay behind if you don’t mind.” She grumbled, but complied. 

“Morgan, JJ, Garcia, let’s go. Spencer, keep working on that geographical profile. We have a list of locations, but we still could narrow it down further. 5 locations is too many.”

As they ran out of the lab they saw Abby huddled with a darker skinned girl with long dark hair. They were hugging and Abby was crying into her shoulder. “Sarah,” JJ heard Abby say to the girl. “I can’t stand not knowing anymore!” 

“Shhh,” Said the girl, Sarah, kissing Abby’s forehead. “He will come home to us safe and sound. I promise, my love.”

“But, It’s  _ Connor, _ ” Said Abby, her voice heavy with emotion. “He’s not strong enough to go through this. It’s sweet, innocent  _ Connor!” _

“You know as well as I do he can deal with more than we think.” Sarah said, pulling Abby in closer. Abby let herself be captured by the smaller woman, and nuzzled her nose into her long dark hair. “He fought off a Mosasaur for you, didn’t he?”

“Creatures are one thing,” Abby said looking at her lover, “But people always hurt him. He told me that once, a long time ago. When we were roommates. After Tom died. He told me, he said ‘just proves I should stay away from people. No one would hurt me anymore, I wouldn’t hurt anyone else.’ I actually don’t think he knew he was talking aloud. Connor’s no good with people Sarah. Something bad happened that he won’t talk about. I don’t know if he will come back from this.”

“Did you tell Cutter or Stephen?” Sarah asked. “About what he said back then.” Abby shook her head. “You should. They’re his mates. You shouldn’t have to bear that burden on your own. They love him too.” She pulled Abby’s face down to meet hers, and kissed her in a chaste kiss. “Like I love you,” the blond Beta blushed. 

“I love you too.” She wrapped her arms around the darker girl and squeezed her fiercely. “But Conner is my best friend.”   
  
“And we will be there for him.” Sarah finished. “No matter what he is going through right now.” She took her hand and pulled Abby towards the menagerie. “Come on, let’s go feed Manny, he always cheers you up.” 

The interaction was only a few moments long, and JJ watched the women fret together over their missing friend. She inwardly smiled over Abby’s concern over Conner, comparing it to her friendship with Spence. “That was sweet, wasn’t it?” Garcia said intruding on JJ’s thoughts. 

“It’s exactly how we would be reacting if it was Spence out there.” JJ said, honestly. “And we weren’t profilers who knew how to track him down.” She added. 

“But we are,” Hotch said stiffly. “Which is why we were called. Now let’s go find that Omega ring and break it up.”


	6. Doncaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team goes to Doncaster in Yorkshire to look for the captives,
> 
> We get another look at what is happening to Connor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW; Rape, Waterboarding, Torture, Gang rape, Forced Pregnancy, Insertion
> 
> (Bad things happen to Connor, Sorry... IF you don't want to read, please skip the second half.)
> 
> On the other hand, we get a closer look at relationship dynamics! Yay!

“I’ve been working on a geographical profile based on dumpsites of the two bodies found and the properties of importance to Thomas Kranz, his home, his workplace, It also seems that Kranz was incarcerated five years ago for attempted kidnapping, So i looked at his cellmate’s records. Julian Rutledge was incarcerated for sexual deviant acts with a minor, along with domestic abuse. They were both released for good behavior within the last two years. I searched Rutledge’s properties as well. Rutledge is a blue collar Beta male who works as a construction worker. Prison reports indicate he would have been the submissive personality in the relationship, he is small, and the circumstances of the rapes were drugs, as for the domestic abuse charges, he seemed to be both victim and perpetrator. He was victim to his wife, and perpetrator against his children. He hasn’t spoken to his family since charged with prison time and now lives by himself. They both live in apartment buildings within the outskirts of Doncaster. although on opposite sides of town.” Spencer rambled off his findings to the BAU members who were on their way up to south Yorkshire. “Looks like the Kranz family home had a basement in it though, and is currently empty.” it was silent for a moment while it seemed as though Reid did a few calculations on the other line. “It is roughly equidistant from both drop sites. Hotch, this has got to be the place he is holding them. I will text you the address. I think Rutledge is our main partner. I don’t think it is out of the question for them to have recruited Male Alphas for simple chores like bouncer for unruly Alpha customers or transporting the Omegas or other various things, they could have even done a labour exchange.” 

“What do you mean by that,” Abby asked

“Labour in exchange for services rendered.” Hotch supplied. “In this case, time with one of the Omegas.” Abby looked disgusted. “It’s not uncommon in small trafficking rings like this, especially where they don’t care what happens to their victims. It’s unfortunate, but true.”

They were touching down in a large field in Doncaster and saw three tactical Jeeps waiting for them. “This isn’t regulation.” Said JJ in surprise. 

“It is for us.” Abby replied clambering into one after Stephen and Cutter. 

“You probably don’t have 3 ton lizards chasing after you on an average day either.” Jenny said, following the blond.

“True.” Garcia noted, getting into another Jeep after Morgan, “But can we really compare bullets to Pterodactyls?” She grinned at Morgan. He laughed. 

“Different situations call for different equipment, Baby Doll.” He said as JJ climbed in next to Garcia, and Hotch took the wheel. 

“We are 10 km from the theorised location.” Hotch said to Becker before the Captain jumped behind the wheel of his own car. “How fast will we get there?” 

“Roads look clear, Cap” Said Garcia before he could answer. 

“Then hopefully no more than 20 minutes.” Becker replied. “Follow me, I will lead.” 

“Sure you will.” Cutter put in, already turning on the engine of his car. 

“I mean it Cutter!” Becker called. “These aren’t Creatures we are dealing with. No one goes into the house before me!”

“Nothin’s going to stop me from ge’in’ my Mate.” Cutter growled, about to tear out of the field, but Morgan had stalked over to the drivers side of the car and put a hand to the window. 

“Stop, and Listen to me Nick,” He said firmly, but not unkindly, “I know how you feel,” He stared down Cutter’s glower. “I do, Hotch and I have both been where you and Stephen are right now.” He looked at Hotch and saw the small nod, allowing the man to continue. “Spencer has been kidnapped more times than we care to think, and as his Mates, it is always a nightmare for us, thinking about what he is going through.” Stephen and Nick had guessed something of the sort by their body language at Cutter’s cottage. “But we will get him back. And when we do, that’s when things will get difficult. For you.” He saw Nick tense. “He will have a long road to recovery, and no one will be able predict what form his trauma will take. It will be up to you two,” He stared at Stephen, then back at Nick, “To help him recover. As Alphas you are free to leave him, but if you  _ love _ him, it is your duty to be there for him.”

There were tears in Abby’s eyes as Morgan spoke. She hadn’t considered Connor’s mental state when they had found him alive. She was so focused on just finding him. She felt like a horrible person. Morgan was right. He probably wouldn’t be the same after this. Who would be? Then his other words came to her. He seemed to know from experience. She didn’t know the group that well, but the stoic man in the suit that introduced himself as the unit chief, with the skinny nerdy doctor and the darker skinned athletically built agent. It was slightly hard to believe. Then again, it had a similar dynamic to Connor and Nick and Stephen. Hell they were basically the same people except Nick was a scientist and not a SSA agent, and Stephen was a microbiologist lab assistant and tracker, not a dark skinned expert profiling agent. Connor and Spencer, well, they both wore vests, although one sweater, one waistcoat, one wore button down long sleeve shirts, the other wore scarves, hats, fingerless gloves and graphic tees. But they were also both Omega geniuses. There was enough of a similarity there. They both were charming and from what she learned so far about Spencer Reid, he had a similar info-dump speaking quality that was endearing and they were both logical to a fault. Although he didn’t see Reid smile that much. Although, Abby reflected that being in a job like theirs must be difficult to maintain an innocence like Connor has, although she was aware of all the self confidence issues her friend had, she was wondering how much worse they were going to get after this. She missed her best friend. It had been less than 24 hours since she had seen him, but just knowing what could be happening to him made her long to see him even more.

* * *

Morgan finally got back into the passenger’s seat of the Jeep and the fleet of cars set off. They were met with the Doncaster DI when they arrived at the house. It was a fairly small house and it looked like it had fallen into disrepair, but it wasn’t the house from the photograph, Hotchner got out of the Jeep and shook hands. “Home Office called,” said the DI. “I am Detective Inspector Leanne Shipman, Lester said that he brought in American agents to investigate an Omega trafficking network?” 

“We are the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit.” JJ said, stepping into her role as Liaison. “We regularly help LEOs with difficult cases, we profile the offenders based on their crimes and figure out how to stop them before too many casualties add up.” 

DI Shipman nodded. “Was there a reason he brought you in, instead of coming to us?” She asked, without offense. 

Hotch replied any possible haughtiness free from his voice and demeanour, it was clear, as with all their cases, he would have preferred if they hadn't needed to be called at all. “One of his agents was the most recent kidnapping victim, he didn’t want to start at the local government because of national security reasons. The team” He motioned to the ARC team leaning on their Jeep, anxious to get started. “Works directly for the home office under the Official Secrets Act.” The DI nodded in understanding. “While we were investigating we uncovered a Omega trafficking ring going on here in Doncaster, so we need your help. We believe our Unsub is keeping the Omegas and selling their heats.” 

“Unknown Subject.” Morgan put in before the Detective could ask. Several of the LEOs looked disgusted. “We also believe that they are allowing customers to play out whatever brutal fantasies they want on the victims. We already located two bodies in your records that match our Unsub. We think he has 4 more victims currently. Including the missing agent.” 

“The victims are from all over the UK,” Garcia said reassuringly. “Which is probably why you didn’t put it together.” 

“They are also spread out over 2 years.” JJ added. "they also had the same brand."

“Why this place?” DI Shipman asked. 

“We believe our unsub is named Thomas Kranz, an Omega Mechanic here in Doncaster. He was a child of one of the Foster families all of the victims stayed with at some point during their period as a ward. The Unsub is victimising specific people who he has been keeping tabs on for ten years or more. Other Omegas whose lives turned out better than his, despite having a more unfortunate background. Omegas that beat the odds so to speak. But only ones that he came in contact with as a child.” Hotch explained. “This is the family’s home where the children were fostered. It would hold an enormous amount of significance to him.”

The SFs were standing in front of the house, weapons drawn. Ditzy was pulling out his medical kit, ready to go in and provide first aid. 

“Captain, do you want to enter first? Or shall we?” Hotch asked Becker. 

“This is your area, I’ll let you direct traffic.” Becker said, his gun aiming at the door. The BAU put their tac vests on and pulled out their guns. 

“Garcia, you stay here until I call you.” Hotch said. He looked at the ARC team, Stephen and Nick also putting on Tac vests and preparing to go in. “You too, Cutter, Hart, Wait here, I will let you know when it’s safe to go in.” They both glared in disapproval at Hotch. “These aren’t prehistoric creatures.” He said. “These are humans, they are smart, and willing to kill, but also able to be reasoned with.” Hotch matched their gazes. “Let me do my job,” Abby touched their arms placatingly, and they looked back at her, then nodded. 

Morgan went around the side of the house, looking for lights, he knocked on the door, “Home Office.” He said. No answer. The alpha kicked in the door with a terrifying smash. He turned on the light on his gun and moved into the cottage. Hotch followed. They swiftly cleared the entrance hall and the front of the house before Becker and Blade joined them. They opened door after door, the place was empty. Morgan found a bedroom that looked like it was used for torture play. There was a mattress in one room that looked like it had been used recently. A trunk was open beside the bed and it was full of tools that were not supposed to be there. A hammer, a few gallons of water and a wet washcloth, a broken bottle, iron knuckles that looked like there was blood on them, a car battery with some stripped wire, etc. There was a rusty hook in the wall that had pieces of thread clinging to the bits of rust. Fresh blood and semen coated the mattress and it was soaking wet, and a chunk of the mattress looked like it was burned away, stopping suddenly. Morgan touched the charred mattress and it came apart in his hands. It was recent. “Hotch,” He said, calling the Unit Chief over to the bedroom. Becker made his way over too. “I wouldn’t come in here Becker,” Morgan said, hesitantly. “You won’t like what you see.” Hotch joined him in the bedroom, sidestepping Becker. One look and he closed the door in Becker’s face. 

“SHOW ME!” Becker shouted, banging on the door. 

Hotch examined the room. “This must have been a client.” he said with disgust on his face. Morgan nodded. 

“Possibly more than one. But we don’t know for sure if this was Connor it was done to,” He said, non-convincingly.

Hotch gave him a look. “Ok, we do. The profile of the Unsub would be that he would sell the heat, and since Connor is in Heat, we absolutely know that he would have been sold right now. But we don’t know if he is the only Omega in the unsub’s possession right now who is in Heat right now.” 

“I’m guessing Reid could give you statistics about 4 omegas in heat if heat lasts for 3-5 days on average and is only every 3 months. How likely would it be for more than one of the Omegas to be in heat at once?” Hotch asked.

“Good point.” Morgan said… “I’m guessing he wouldn’t induce a heat unless he had to. So yeah, it’s probably the result of injuries to Temple.”

Hotch loosened his grasp on the door without realising it and Becker barged in. Becker paled as he took in the scene before him. the blood on the mattress, the Butane torch next to the bed, the brass knuckles and knife covered in blood. “Connor!” He rasped, suddenly unable to swallow. He couldn’t imagine the sweet innocent boy he knew and cherished as a teammate subjected to such a cruel twist of fate. 

“Captain!” Blade called from the other room. The three men abandoned the blood stained room and hurried over to the SF who was pointing at drag marks and bloodstains on the carpet. 

“Nice work, Dave,” Becker said to Blade, clapping his hand on the SF’s shoulder. They followed the marks to another door, and opened it slowly, guns drawn. 

“Home Office,” Hotch shouted down the concrete steps he found on the other side of the doorway. There was no answer. No flurry of activity. Nothing. They made their way down to the cellar, careful to do a thorough sweep as they went. The drag marks continued down the steps and stopped, forming a small fresh puddle of fluids that seemed to be a mixture of blood and semen. The cellar was empty. As Hotch brought his light up from the concrete floor he heard a gasp from behind him. A rusty, blood soaked, meat-hook was suspended from a superficial pipe on the ceiling. He traced his torch along the pipe and found three more identical meathooks, in a similar state of misuse.

Morgan came down the stairs next to Hotch and tapped the blood on the ground. “This is still fresh,” He said. “They can’t be more than an hour ahead of us.”

“They were here,” Becker growled. He shone his torch around finding more drag marks. “Look, there is another way out.” they followed the marks to a thin door leading out to a small concrete staircase that led up to the ground level. “It opens up to the country, they could have slipped out back.” 

“We need to regroup and figure out our next course of action.” Hotch said, motioning to the other three to go back to the front of the house.

“To hell with that,” Becker said, “We need to find Connor.” 

“We can’t just wander aimlessly through the woods, not the four of us.” Hotch said, his eyes hard. “Trust me, we have dealt with this sort of thing before. We need to talk to the locals, see what’s around here, find out where Thomas would go, how far into the country on back roads. a vehicle could get. We will get Garcia to pull up some maps.” Becker glowered. “Once we know what we are getting into, then we will go get him. He won’t dispose of Connor. He wants them alive, we also haven’t found the pups yet, we know he has kept them, so we will need to find them.”

They walked back around to the front of the house.    
  
“They had just left when we went in.” Hotch said. “Garcia pull up the photo of the house, see if DI Shipman recognises it, then find out what sort of backroads you can drive on in this area, DI Shipman, our victim was sent this photo two days before he disappeared. Do you know this house?”

“It looks familiar,” She said. “A case before my time. Just a mo’” She turned around “Any of you lot know this shack?” she called. “Something woulda happened long time-ago.” They all shook their heads. 

A PC came up and studied it. “Seems familiar, but can’t place it.” he said.

Hotch squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He looked at his watch. Then remembered he hadn’t remembered to reset it that morning when they got in. 

“What time is it?” He asked anyone around.

“22:30” Becker said gruffly. 

“We should reconvene in the morning.” Hotch said reluctantly. 

“WHAT?!” Stephen, Nick, Abby and Becker shouted. 

“Look, the BAU has been up all night, we still haven’t properly adjusted to this time zone, when we were called it was around 2 am for us.” Hotch tried to explain, handing the computer back to Garcia. “You guys have been up since 5:30 or 6 and considering you guys got a call today, must still be exhausted. We need sleep to properly conduct a search. I know we all hoped we would find him within the first 24 hours, but our unsub seems to be keeping our victims long term, so we don’t think there will be any chance that a few hours sleep will prove lethal.” He also knew that he may be condemning the boy to more sadistic sexual predators, and he felt incredibly guilty about that, but he could tell everyone was running on fumes. Morgan came up next to him. He looked at Hotch and instantly understood the guilt he was feeling, but also understood the necessity of taking a break.

“He’s right.” Morgan said. “We need to go eat something, get some rest, and we will be back early tomorrow morning. DI Shipman, is there somewhere in town that we can rent rooms for the night?” 

Stephen turned to Nick “We can’t stop looking now, we are so close.” he said

“We aren’t really though, are we?” Nick said, downhearted. “We found out that he had been here, but we missed him. We don’t know where to look next.”

“So by break - “ 

“Probably just physically,” Nick said. “I’m guessing they will keep working theoretically. Like they were doing this afternoon.” 

Stephen sighed in relief. “Fine, we can go.” He said. 

“Good,” Nick said with a small smile, “I didn’t want to have to alpha you in front of the FBI, that would be embarrassing.” Stephen flushed. 

“When we get Connor back you can alpha both of us” He said slyly. Nick winked. 

“My pleasure.” 

* * *

The Doncaster inn barely had enough rooms for all of them, but they made it work. Morgan, Hotch and Reid took one, Stephen and Cutter another, the 4 SFs shared, JJ, Garcia and Abby took the final one. The beta women looked thrilled to share a room, even if there were only two beds. Garcia grabbed JJ and pulled her in the direction of their room. Abby gave Becker and Stephen and Cutter a hug, then ran after them. 

“What sort of takeaway do you have around here that is still open?” Becker asked the receptionist. 

“Sorry, this is a small town,” said the woman behind the counter. “Nothing stays open past 10. But we have a vending machine down the hall with some cup-a-soups. Good night!”

“Kettle dinner, lovely...” Cutter rolled his eyes. “Like uni all over again.”

“What are cup-a-soups?” Asked Morgan “Is it anything like the Ramen cup a noodles back in the states?” 

“I wish,” Stephen chortled as they walked down the hall to the vending machine. “Since electric kettles are common-place, they started making dinners that can be cooked in hot water.” They reached a large vending machine with a glass front. He pointed at some colourful packets. “You pour it into a mug, add hot water, 90 seconds later you get pasta.” They saw three different kinds of pasta, plus a few different kinds of what actually looked like soup.

“Three quid?” Nick said, astonished. “You can get these at a market for 50p. That’s it, I’m going to see if there is a late night Tesco’s or something open. Anyone coming?”

“I don’t think any of us got to actually exchange any money.” Hotch said, 

“Small town like this may not take American credit…” Nick said thoughtfully, “Ok, one of you lot with me and I will pay. Stephen, tell Abby, I will call her when we find somewhere that has food and ask her what she and the ladies want.” 

Hotch handed over two of the three keys to Reid and Morgan and leaned over to give Spencer a kiss, then he squeezed Morgan’s hand and set off after Cutter. Spencer blushed but looked pleased. He turned around to Morgan and nuzzled him. 

“We will be in our room.” Morgan said looking apologetic and stroking Spencer’s hair, leading him away

Stephen stood in the hallway, quiet, until Becker placed a hand on his shoulder. “We will find him,” Becker said soothingly. 

“I just thought he would be back in our arms by now.” Stephen said, slightly hopelessly, looking at his empty arms. “I feel so useless. I hate feeling like that.”

“We all do when someone we love is in trouble.” Becker reminded him. “It’s not easy to let someone else take charge, but these are professionals and they are good at what they do. So let’s trust them to do their job.”

Lucky for them, Cutter and Hotch found a late night convenience store a few blocks away that barely had enough for them to eat, Cutter called Becker, Stephen and Abby to ask orders and got large bags of Popcorn, Crisps, some sodas, a variety of the sandwiches that were left, a bottle of wine, a bar of cadburys for each room (Two for the SFs) and some other random odds and ends that Hotch picked out. It wasn’t an amazing selection, but they wouldn’t starve. After a moment’s hesitation Hotch also grabbed a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter and some jam. Cutter grabbed a small box of Twinings breakfast tea for the morning. “Better than the crap at the motel,” he said, “Trust me. Between all of us, it will be gone by tea - sorry, midday.” 

They brought all their wares back to the hotel and split everything up into four bags, giving one back to each room. The bag for the girls room was smaller than everyone elses, and there were two for the SFs, two pairs, minus Connor had a pretty full bag each, but only one. 

After everyone had eaten Stephen and Nick cuddled together on the bed. The stillness seemed awkward for them, as Connor normally lay between them and was a restless sleeper. “What are they doing to him?” Stephen asked quietly. 

“I can’t even imagine, love,” Nick said back, kissing Stephen’s forehead. Stephen leaned up and kissed him back. 

“I feel like we are so incomplete without him with us.” 

“Me too, but I will always love you, as much as I love him,” Stephen nuzzled into Nick’s chest and cried for the first time that day. Nick stroked the younger man’s hair in a soothing manner. 

“I just hope we find him alright,” Stephen said, worry constricting his voice. 

“So do I.” They dropped off to a restless sleep. 

* * *

Cloth, water, drowning. Connor sputtered awake trying to breathe and realised for the first time that the ball gag was out of his mouth. Water was forcibly ejected from his lungs and he caught his breath only to have the wet cloth cover his face again. He struggled against his restraints but he was still hooked to the wall and could feel the wet fluids of the mattress below him. He tried to breathe, water flooded his lungs, the world dimmed around him. Then electricity coursed through his body and burned his skin. Again, cloth, water, darkness, then electricity and burning. Burns on his thigh and forearm, groin and shoulderbone, inner thigh and neck. The burning electricity coursed through him longer each time. But Connor couldn’t scream anymore. He turned and bit his upper arm as the pain took away his senses. He bit as if the gag was still in his mouth. And then his mouth was forced open and something slimy was forced inside. “Bite me,” said a gruff voice, “and you die here and now.” Connor swallowed in fear. The cock was shoved deep into his throat and the boy choked. “Take it!” said the man. “Useless slag, all you omegas are good for is a good quick shag. You are lucky I deemed you worthy of my time. You worthless, filthy, thing.” He thrust harder into Connor’s mouth and saw the mating marks. He grabbed the Omega hard by them. “No one is coming for you. No mate will want something as vile and stupid as you.” Connor tried to block out the obvious lies that the Alpha was telling him. 

But the subspace plus the alpha voice and his already low self confidence working together made the arguments seem highly compelling. The alpha fucked his mouth harder and faster. Laughing at the face Connor was making. 

Without warning a stream of hot thick cum shot down Connor’s throat and Connor coughed and gagged, but the alpha only laughed and didn’t remove his flaccid cock from where it was resting in the boy’s mouth. The door behind the man banged open. “Done. Pay and get out.” the newcomer smelled like nothing. A beta.

The alpha on top of Connor growled at the Beta but the man didn’t move. A larger alpha came through the door and growled back. Finally the customer left. The large alpha unchained Connor without pity and dragged him through the house and down the cellar steps to hang on a meathook. Blood dripped down from his torn hole and stabs, his burns felt like fire and he sputtered weakly, coughing and gasping for air. He let his head loll to the side and slipped into unconsciousness. 

The next thing he knew he was being unceremoniously thrown on top of three other naked and chained omegas in the back of a truck. He whimpered slightly and a soft female voice whispered in a familiar yorkshire accent, “How badly did they hurt you?”

He only cried. A male voice said, also with a yorkshire accent, “it’s ok, you can talk to us.”

Connor shivered and tried to snuggle as carefully as he could into the body heat the other omegas gave him in the blistering cold of the moving truck. One of them hissed slightly with pain and Connor pulled back but the female voice just said “It’s fine.” The two voices he heard were both also yorkshire accents. 

There was a third Yorkshire voice. “Omega…” she said with a sultry rasp 

“Stop it Trish,” The man said

“You know she can’t help it, Alex,” said the other female

“She is rubbing up against me, Female Omegas are the worst,” Alex complained. 

“Her bond has broken, it’s not her fault.” The girl said “We will all degrade into that if we are here long enough.” Connor was confused. He had never heard so many accents similar to his since he left southern Yorkshire ten years previously. That made him think, both the people who were on him tonight spoke in Yorkshire accents. He was just too scared to notice. But, if he was in Yorkshire, his mates would never find him. He started crying in earnest. He knew he was going to die there. “Shh, it’s ok,” said Alex, his voice comforting again. 

“Where are we?” Connor cried, “Where are they taking us?”

“We have no idea where we are,” said the still unidentified female voice. “But we travel between two locations. One is for customers, the other…” She trailed off, “You will find out, Just do what they say and you will stay alive.”

“Don’t scare the newbie, Kat.” Alex said. “Think of your mate, it will be ok.” 

The truck stopped and the bed opened. Connor was pulled out by his legs and landed on his back in the mud. Someone grabbed his wrist bindings and dragged him across the ground and up a few wooden steps. He heard a door slam open and he felt himself get dragged over rough wooden slats. They pulled him down stairs and threw him onto a concrete floor that had a metal drain on it. 

“You’re first,” sneered the Alpha. He took a hose that was lying by the wall and opened the spigot. Water gushed from the line. He sprayed it unrelentingly at Connor who was still lying on the floor. The water was ice cold and pounded his skin like a hail storm, he tried to curl in on himself. “STAY!” Shouted the Alpha, “Unless you want me to make you.” The threat was evident in his growl. Connor whimpered and stretched back out. “Roll” Connor obeyed meekly and rolled to his other side so his back was to the man with the hose. Without warning the stream was cascading through his insides, freezing him from the core out. Cum and blood were washed away down the drain. He pulled the hose from Connor’s entrance with a swift tug and everything came pouring out of him. Connor longed to scream, to whimper, to make some sort of noise, but he thought that would make things worse, so he bit his lip. Soon the taste of iron filled his mouth.

The man turned off the hose and kicked Connor hard towards the wall. “Stupid baby-maker,” the Alpha muttered. “How someone like you could work for the government is beyond me.” He kicked Connor in the womb. “I should make you useless as an Omega, unable to breed” the man sneered, “Then what good would you be to anyone?” He kicked him again in the same place. He unzipped his pants and pulled out his own large cock. He pulled Connor’s arse up towards him and pushed his face into the ground. “Make one sound,” The man said, “And you will wish you were dead.” And with one aggressive thrust he was balls deep in the Omega. 

Connor was tired and his hole was sore and agitated, the man attacking him was unrelenting and cruel. Even without seeing it, he could tell that he was bleeding again. He closed his eyes and prayed for it to stop. He switched his bottom lip for his forearm, which had also started to bleed now. He had no idea how long he kneeled there, head pushed into the concrete, arse being pounded, until finally the Alpha finished. It felt like forever when he finally felt the warm gush flooding his insides that meant that the man had come and it was over. 

“You don’t think we’re done, do you?” The man sneered. “We're just getting started.” The man pulled out and replaced his own shaft with something far less pleasant. It felt like a long rectangular block of wood with nails and other sharp metal fasteners driven part way in. Even though Connor was wet from the man’s cum and other Alphas entering him, the homemade device was large and unfinished. The force the alpha exerted shoving it into the small Omega dislodged splinters, and the mangled offcut tore and sliced the boy as it was thrust in and out. 

He could feel something clip to it and suddenly a familiar surge of electricity burst through his body, and he wanted to claw at what was inside him, the attacker, his eyes, his hair, anything. But the man held his hands above his head and laughed as he slowly turned the electricity up higher. And then turned it off. 

Connor turned to look behind him and watched as the man on top of him pulled out a phial and needle. “This’ll mess you up right quick, it will.” He said, “On top of your heat and all.” He injected Connor with the drug. He suddenly felt like he had fire running through his veins. He wanted to scream, but instead he just shoved his forearm harder into his mouth. He tried to struggle but the offcut inside him pierced him every time he moved. The Alpha jeered. He brought the hand that he wasn’t biting the forearm to his head, bringing his legs up under him, while still kneeling on them, and causing a gasp of pain as he moved the piece of wood lodged inside him. He pulled his hair and tore at the bites on his neck. He felt like was trapped in his skin. He stopped biting his arm and resumed biting his bottom lip so he could scratch at his arms, his face, his torso, his legs, everywhere he could reach. He scratched until he bled. His captor sat and watched as the omega in his control writhed silently, tears coursing down his face. 

It seemed like forever before the fever heat died down to a “sunbed” level heat and the fire in his veins switched to needles. The alpha seemed to get annoyed as Connor relaxed and got up again to fetch another phial. Connor felt another needle peirce him and the fire surged again. A few moments later, after he had started getting used to the heat of the fire once more, electricity surged through his body again in short intense spurts. Connor bit down so hard on his lower lip that he could feel the teeth on the other side. It seemed a relief when he finally passed out.

Connor awoke in a large metal cage next to the other omega he met on the transport. The remains of the offcut tore at his insides and he could still feel the remains of the electricity running through his body. He heard footsteps coming down the stairs. 

“Connor Temple,” said a man standing in front of him, “Not so high and mighty now, are you? Just another worthless Omega whose body is made to sell to the highest bidder.” The man laughed. “Omegas aren’t supposed to climb up in the world, haven’t you heard?” he hissed, bringing his face down to stare directly into Connor’s tired but defiant eyes. “We stay home, bear pups, and be wives.” He stood up again. “No one wants a smart Omega, Omegas are sex objects.”

“Just because that’s how YOU see yourself, Tommy,” Connor retorted, “Doesn’t mean everyone thinks of Omegas as trash.” He held his chin up. “My Mates love and respect me and my intelligence.” 

Tommy laughed “But how much will they love and respect you when you bear someone elses pup?” He asked with a sneer. Connor blanched. 

“No,” Connor pleaded. “You can’t,” he babbled, “I can’t! NO!” the cage opened and someone pulled Connor out by the leg. Connor tried to hold on to the cage but the Alphas pried his hands off. They carried him to a room and threw him, stomach down over a tall shape, similar to a gymnastics pommel horse, firm, rectangular, curved and about two foot by four foot. It stood about three foot high. The Alphas tied his hands and feet to the legs of the bed and Connor lay there, arse at the end of the stool, facing away from Tommy. He could feel gloved hands caressing his arse and pulling at his limp cock. He shivered. The hand stuck a few fingers in, two at first, then three. No lube was used but soon there was a familiar metallic smell in the air as something wet ran down Connor’s leg. A fourth finger was added, opening him up, he could feel a large hand moving in and out of him and hissed in pain. Hand grabbed his leg. “No noises.” Tommy whispered from behind him. The hand kept pushing and Connor thought it would come out his stomach. It thrust harder and faster, trying to go further and further into the small Omega who was gripping the legs of the thing he was attached to with all his might. Suddenly a cock was in his face and being forced down his throat and he choked. “Anyone else want to fist him before we fuck ‘im?” The hand was removed from his backside and a larger one without a glove went straight in, fast and hard. Connor gasped and the man in his mouth pushed himself further down his throat. 

“Over here’s not bad either, lads.” the man called. There was a flurry of activity, he didn’t know how long people were gathered around him. Hours, days, years. He lost track of the number of people who used him. At some point a plug was put into him 

“Now stay like that and fertilize, Connor,” Tommy said with relish. “We should have given you plenty of seed to do the trick.” The door closed behind them and Connor’s head fell to his shoulder, the world went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing about labour exchange = labour in exchange for services rendered. I have no idea if its actually a term, or if i made it up, or if that is what it means. I literally forgot the term for a mo and thats what i came up with. 
> 
> also, that thing about using labour in exchange for services in trafficking rings being common in small sex trafficking rings, i also have no idea if thats true. it sounded good. and reasonable. so i went with it. 
> 
> I do feel so bad for what i put Connor through in this chapter. Don't worry though, help is on its way!


	7. the Lost Cottage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look at Connor's past with Tommy and how he survived

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW; Child abuse, Rape, Dissociation, Neglect, Child endangerment
> 
> This chapter is mostly a look into the past, if you are confused, let me know

When Connor came to he looked around and his heart fell. He knew where they were. He recognised the vines in the windows and the clumsy handiwork on the stairs. He sobbed in despair. No one would ever find them. It was the Lost Cottage. Aptly dubbed because it was so overgrown with ivy that it had literally disappeared for years on end. Tommy and he had discovered it one day when he was 12, when they were exploring the country. That summer the two of them, plus the other foster children, spent every day cleaning out the cottage and making it as skillfully as they could at their age, which wasn’t. They also had extremely limited resources, but they made do. They managed to get a wobbly staircase going, and even some semblance of a second floor that was sturdy enough for a few 45 kg boys to walk on. It took all summer, but by the time he was in year 9, they had a retreat from the foster home they were forced to stay at. It was only 4.5 km from their house, so they could easily walk to and from after school. 

Tommy was a few years older than Connor though, and he had been having a rough time at school. There were a few times when he came back to the cottage in a rage at being denied something or hit or teased (he never said) due to being an Omega and needed to take it out on someone lesser than himself. In year 9, Connor was the only Omega foster in the house. A male Omega ward was the only thing that could be less than a male omega. Male Omegas were considered to be the lowest of the low in society. Connor didn’t care. He took books out from the library and read, he read everything. He learned. Since they wouldn’t let him skip grades, and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, he kept his head down and was a model student. He studied Paleontology in his free time. Found a computer in the dumpster and brought it back to the cottage. In no time he had it fixed and was learning the coding that made the computer work. He realised that he could code as easily as he could write. It came painfully easy for him. He started hacking into banks and donating small sums of money to charities. Enough that no one would look twice. He hacked into the home office and deduced all the Lord’s salaries by one eighth. He gave the rest to charity. He worked under numerous pseudonyms and constantly changed his IP address so no one could tell it was him. One day, a hacker sent him a coded message inviting him to join their network. He eagerly joined. Apparently he had been noticed. But only by other hackers, the governments had no idea who had done the work, only someone familiar with coding could recognise the similar hacking codes in the jobs he had done. They commended him on jobs well done. He glowed with pride. 

During this period Tommy’s outbursts of anger became more frequent, and more violent. The first time Tommy shoved him against the wall and yanked off his trousers and pants, Connor fought violently. The older boy punched him hard in the gut and Connor passed out. When he came to his lower back was painful, his legs were spread wide and his hips were off the ground. He felt something hot moving in and out of him vigorously. He looked down to see Tommy at his feet with his pants unzipped, flush with his naked arse. It took him a minute to comprehend what was happening. And then the pain erupted. “GAHH!” Connor screamed making Tommy look up and scowl at him 

“Shut it,” Said the older boy, He flipped Connor over roughly so the younger boy was on his hands and knees. 

“Stop! TOMMY!” Connor pleaded

“I said, Shut it!” Tommy growled with menace, pulling out a knife and pushing it slightly into his abdomen. “Or I’ll fuck your unconcious body instead. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” Connor said with fear. He felt the dagger plunge into his side. 

“I warned you.” Tommy grumbled, He hit Connor over the head with the pommel of the knife, and Connor fell unconscious. 

It was dark the next time Connor awoke. “Shite!” he muttered, he tried to get up but he hurt everywhere. He put a hand between his legs and pulled it out to find blood coating it. “Fuck, I can’t deal with this right now.” He scrambled into his discarded underpants and trousers and grabbed his school bag. He set off at the quickest pace he could manage, but it felt like an eternity later that he found himself at the front door of the Krantz house. He tried to enter but it was locked. He tried his key, it wouldn’t work. “Fuck…” He muttered to himself. He turned and slowly retraced his steps back to the cottage. He didn’t care about going hungry for a few days. He could survive. He had slept outside too. But he really needed a change of clothing, he didn’t want to turn up to school in a pair of bloody underpants and with blood caked down his legs. He needed to find something to bandage the knife wound in his side too. Plus, it was October. Frost was setting in. He wasn’t going to enjoy spending the night trying to keep from freezing to death in his sleep in a house with half a roof and no heater in October. He wouldn’t sleep. He had enough books in the cottage and the Hacker’s network was always open. 

He hated how strict the rules were at this Foster Home. Must be home before sundown, Omegas are last to eat, Omegas are last to wash, Omegas get the hand-me downs after no one else wants them. Omegas shouldn’t be smarter than a Beta, and definitely not smarter than an Alpha. An Alpha is always right. It’s such antiquated logic. Unfortunately, he presented early, and now he was getting the short end of the stick. He tried to hide. Maybe at his next home he will convince his Social Worker to let him go as a Beta. He got an idea. 

He made a list of what he would need to do. First, open a bank account and put money in it. Easy enough. Second, get a mailing address. That means getting a post office box in town. Fine, he could do that. Third, go to a chemist and tell them that he needed two prescriptions for suppressants, one for me, one for my dad, plus monthly refills delivered to the post box. (He would be able to convince them because they would be able to tell that he was an Omega.) Once he was on enough suppressant, he would hack back into the Home Office Database, and into his school records and change his gender to B. 

He would be a Beta. No one in the house was an Alpha (Tommy had an older brother who was an Alpha, but he moved out a few years earlier), so no one would be able to tell that his scent had changed. The only problem was, Tommy… He wasn’t sure what he would do about him. 

He took the bloodied blanket off the floor from where Tommy had raped him earlier and tried not to throw up. He really wanted to toss the blanket in the fire, but it was cold, and his clothing was threadbare. Not to mention, he needed some sort of bandage for his side. He tore a few strips off the side with his teeth and carefully wrapped them around his flank, pulling tightly so the wound would close. He let out the breath he was holding with a hiss as he finished his work. He felt a little better. Connor went to the most sheltered corner of the house with a stack of books and began to read, curled in the nauseating blanket that he desperately wanted to burn to ashes. 

Connor later realised that he had no idea how he had managed to get through the night. It felt like he was living in that night for years. And then suddenly it was over. As if it never happened. Birds chirped and Connor stood up and stretched from where he had been curled in a ball the whole time, trying to retain any vestiges of body heat. As he stood pain shot through him from his side and up his back and he suddenly remembered yesterday. He sank down to the ground and started sobbing. 

He snuck into the school early and went directly to the locker rooms. He tossed his pants, and took a long hot shower. He scrubbed himself as hard as he could in that little stall, praying that no one would come and see the bloody water flowing down the drain. Once he felt like he was a normal temperature again, and he couldn’t see anymore red in the drain, he reluctantly turned off of the stream and got dressed. He felt weird without pants under his trousers, but he didn’t know what to do about it. 

He would go into town today and buy a new pair. He had taken the first step last night, and set up a bank account in his name, he siphoned a thousand pounds from everyone who held an account. Considering how many people were credit holders, it wasn’t much he was taking from anyone, like 5p. No one would miss 5p. He just needed to go to the bank after school and tell them that he lost his card and file for a new one. Easy as pudding. 

He didn’t go to his classes today, he spent the day in the library. He read about what makes a person do terrible acts, like rape and murder, about crimes against humanity, and crimes against individuals, about omega rights and equal rights for all genders, about terrorism steming from those who don’t believe in equal rights, about religion and rights, about religion and war, Eventually he found himself in an area about criminal behavior, and victimisation, something called Criminal Profiling. He found a few books from a man called David Rossi. He read about the formation of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, and how David Rossi formed it with Jason Gideon. He searched for recent publications and found that the BSU had changed its name to the BAU, The Behavioral Analysis Unit, which was now being run by Aaron Hotchner. He found article after article on how they took down serial rapists and serial arsonists, serial killers and stalkers, kidnappers and trafficking rings. Connor was enthralled. He started reading about psychology and behavioral science. He didn’t think he could ever do anything like that. But he really liked learning new things, and after yesterday, he found himself particularly motivated. 

He heard the school bell ring and he put the stacks of books he had taken off the shelves on carts to be reshelved. “Again, Connor?” one of the Librarians said with a sigh. “How did you manage to read so many books in one day?”

“I read fast,” Connor said with a grin. “Sorry Sheryl, Can I help you put them back? I know the dewey decimal system.” 

“Of course you do…” Sheryl said with a grin. “It’s all right, I need to put into our system what you were reading anyway.”

“Next time, should I just write down a list of everything I’ve read and put them back meself?” Connor asked curiously, “Save you the trouble. I will put the dewey decimal number on and everything.” 

“Sure, why not.” Sheryl said, fondly, “Let’s try that next time and see if it’s easier.”

“Rodger,” He gave her a mock salute, and left the Library. 

After picking up the card from the bank, the errands at the mail office and chemists went smoother than he could have hoped. He went to the thrift store and got a coat and some trousers and a few shirts. He also grabbed a blanket. Just in case. He would hide this stuff at the cottage somewhere no one would look. Finally he went to a Boots and picked up some pants and a few large bottles of water, he also found a small flashlight and a lighter which he added to his basket. He hesitated outside a Tescos for a moment. Finally he went in and grabbed a few sandwiches, some fruit, and a few cans of beans. 

As he approached the cottage with his treasures he started looking for places to hide them. He knew that if anyone found his contraband it would be turned over to the Krantz home immediately, and he would get nothing. So, he searched and found an abandoned mole hole in the hill under a large apple tree. It was about twenty yards from the house and large enough to stash everything. Perfect. He opened one of the sandwiches and crammed it hungrily into his mouth, then he forced himself to breathe, and remember where he was. He finished the half he was working on and put the rest away for later. He didn’t really want to, but he didn’t know how long it would need to last. He took a long pull from one of the water bottles and shoved the bags deep into the hole. He used his hands to conceal the entrance from anyone, and once he was satisfied, he wiped his hands on his trousers. 

As soon as he entered the cottage Tommy grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against a wall. “Where have you been?” He asked furiously.

“Group Project.” Connor squeaked.

There was a flash of pain across his face, “Liar,” Tommy roared, his face right next to the boy’s. Connor thought his eardrums would burst. Tommy turned Connor roughly around and shoved his face into the wall. He yanked his trousers down and Connor felt a cool breeze on his privates. He heard a zip and something hard and hot was shoved ruthlessly into him. Tommy wove his arm around Connor’s trapping it and grabbed his head as the older boy thrust himself aggressively into the younger Omega. The older took the younger’s head and bashed it into the stone wall with a contemptuous savagery. Stars shone in front of Connor’s eyes as he fought to stay standing. Tommy’s other hand yanked Connor’s arm behind him and twisted it until there was a whimper from Connor. 

“You are learning,” Tommy said happily, 

Connor tried to nod, but his hair was gripped too tightly. Tommy pulled him from the wall and sent him crashing to the ground, making him soften the impact with his cheek. Connor’s eyes went dead as Tommy continued to play with his body. 

It was the first time Connor had dissociated, but soon it became a habit. Every time Tommy jumped him, he would retreat into the worlds he had found in the library. He would try to solve some new puzzle or contemplate some new subject he was learning. He stopped going to class. He stayed in the library. He got all his homework in on time, passed all his tests with flying colors so his teachers couldn’t complain. They knew the work was too easy for him, so a few of them started asking him to write weekly reports on what he was learning on his own as it pertained to their subject. 

**

For science he explained the theories of the evolutionary science of Dr Cutter and Dr Cutter. He Studied the laws of physics and discussed astrophysics principles that were grades beyond him. He dove into chemistry and vaccines and the theories behind superbacterias 

For maths he dove into quantum physics and string theory, coding and computer software. He learned advanced calculus and statistics and applied statistics to a national level using theories of someone who had double the learning and was quadruple the age. 

In literature he read Chaucer and Twain, He discussed Dickens and Homer, He found arguments in Shakespeare relating to the old roman playwrights, he read middle english and Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in the original Russian. He even cited Dante down to the verse, untranslated. 

It was the BAU that he studied for Psychology. Or rather, Behavioral Psychology and profiling. He explained the nature of profiling and the accuracy in crime solving, he applied it in his own life, noting people around him (He kept away from Tommy Krantz), and discussed the success the FBI had with their BAU team. 

History. History of Theatre, History of Art, History of Battle. He studied the Peloponnesian war, He studied the Chinese empires, the Picts of Briton, The histories that made up legends, The history of the Crusades, The Children’s Crusade, The Americas, the forming of the United States, Manifest Destiny, the colonization of the world, He loved history. He went back further. Pliocene era, when Man was first evolving, Pangea, Paliolithic era, Precambrian, Jurassic, Silurian, He loved learning about what the archeologists found that related to each era. He learned that the Silurian Era was mostly sand, and that Cretaceous is where most of the most well known dinosaurs came from (He knew that one already though). He learned about the Triassic and the  dinosauromorphs , cousins to the dinosaurs. 

His teachers were impressed with what he was learning and stopped making him do homework. They needed him to take the tests, but as long as he took those, they decided that he could pass the school year without a fuss. Connor was happy at school. He learned anything he wanted, packed his brain full of an endless supply of information. He wished he didn’t have to go home at the end of the day. But days end, and Tommy always expected him at the cottage. He tried not going once. He went straight back to the foster house. The Krantzs didn’t really care if he was there or not. They didn’t make any more food for him if he was there than if he wasn’t, and they never worried about him if he didn’t come home. The day after the first incident with Tommy, when he got back to the Krantz house no one said a word to him. No one mentioned his absence the previous night or asked him where he stayed the night. Connor knew where he stood. 

Tommy arrived back at the house twice as furious after he hadn’t found Connor at the cottage. He wasn’t allowed to show anger in front of his parents so he waited until they went to sleep and he entered the room Connor shared and silently approached his sleeping form. Before he could register what was happening the older boy had straddled the younger, keeping the thin boy’s stomach flat against the thin mattress. “You EVER, think of not showing up again,” He hissed into Connor’s ear as he jerked the boy’s pyjama bottoms and underpants down. Connor bit down on the ball of clothing he had stuffed into a pillowcase. He tried to drift off to a happy place as he felt something familiar enter him but Tommy pulled him back. “Do it again, and I won’t be quite so easy on you,” Tommy sneered as he grabbed Connor’s throat. The boy choked and gasped for breath struggling to bring air into his lungs. There was a soft laugh, a sudden warm gush that flowed into him, and Tommy was gone. 

The next day, Connor shredded the ruined blanket in the Cottage and used it as a scarf. The library ladies saw how much he seemed to like scarfs, so they started bringing him the ones they didn’t wear anymore. He was happy to wear them, as it seemed that night had given Tommy a new fetish. 

It was a month later that he first started wearing fingerless gloves. He hadn’t even realised what had happened because he was disassociating through the whole thing, when he came out of it, his wrists hurt, badly. Bruises formed not long after. He had started with simple sweatbands, and then Tommy started smoking. He awoke after one brutal session to find cigarette burns on his palms and the back of his hands. There were cuts on his arms, and his back felt like it had been beaten with a bat. 

Every few months he would siphon a thousand pounds from the account holders at the large bank he had decided to open an account with. He went to a variety of thrift shops and found clothing that would hide his cuts and bruises. He hid everything under the tree by the cottage. He started coming home every other night instead of every night. Then a few nights a week. Then a few nights a month. No one cared. The Cottage was his sanctuary. And his hell. For a few hours a day he would have to suffer through hell so that he could be who he wanted to be, do what he wanted to do, and no one would ask questions. The other foster children didn’t question him about his whereabouts. They knew exactly where he was, and why he wasn’t coming home. The only thing they didn’t know was how far Tommy had taken his punishments. 

He figured out a system, he left the cottage in the morning, stopped by the tree, added the exact right accessories to his uniform so that all possible cuts and bruises were covered, then went to school. He showered in the locker room before class, spent the day in the library, and on his way back, he took them all off at the tree before heading into the cottage. He would stop by a market occasionally for food, or clothing, but not often, he bought himself a towel and body wash that he used to wash his hair and to use as soap. 

After Tommy left he would go back to the tree and get his blanket, coat, water, food and lighter. He would light a small fire in the center of the room and fall asleep on the floor. Get up at the crack of dawn, get rid of the ashes, put his blanket and coat away and put on the accessories, and do it all again. 

He found a pair of uniformed pants that were a size too big, and started wearing those, instead of the ones he got originally from the school, he wore a long sleeve shirt under his shirt, long fingerless gloves, layers of scarves to hide the bruises on his neck, and he started wearing a stiff hat with a brim so that he wouldn’t knock it into things because it was always so tender. It also hid all the lumps that Tommy gave him. 

“You have a really unique sense of style there, Connor,” Sheryl told him one day. 

“Uh, thanks,” He said with a wry smile. He didn’t want to explain to her that his ‘sense of style’ came less from fashion and more from necessity. 

His entire year nine passed in this way. He was halfway through year ten when the Krantz’s finally noticed that he had stopped coming home and called his social worker. He was 14 at this point, and was managing without the help of others. He had started making money over the hacking network by writing code, and become really good friends with someone by the name of “gothkittyqueen”. He assumed it was a girl, but over the internet, you never really know. He went by the handle “ledinosaurTemple”, but he doubted anyone would figure out Temple was his actual name. No one ever did. 

So when he was unceremoniously pulled from the Krantz house and shipped to a foster home in the next town over, he was both relieved to get away from Tommy, and disappointed that he had to leave the world he had made for himself to escape into. He had finally succeeded with his plan to fool everyone into thinking he was a Beta though, and before he had a single heat. Which was something. If Tommy had known something, he didn’t say. So he was out. Middle of year ten, at 14 years, he was out. The Lost Cottage had been his whole world for nearly two years, it had become hell on earth and his own private bit of heaven. He hated himself for missing it. 

  
**

And now, He was back. He remembered the weeks he spent curled up under the stars, reading, coding, just being alone, being able to be him. Without judgement, without gender. He also remembered the countless punishments, forceful entrances into his body, the knife marks, bruises from slaps, punches, choking, dislocated shoulders, concussions he was terrified that he wouldn’t ever wake up from, burns, and sudden unconsciousness. He remembered waking from dissociative state after dissociative state and examining his body to see what had been done to it. He remembered the depression, hopelessness, wishing for it to simply end. 

This place really did hold all the worst parts of that time of his life. As he lay stretched over the pommel horse with a pug up his arse, he vaguely wondered how Sheryl the Librarian was doing. 

He was exhausted. He didn’t know if he could keep his eyes open anymore. He felt cold and everything ached. His eyelids felt heavy and started to droop closed. He thought he remembered something he once read, after massive blood loss or concussion, keep the patient awake and talking otherwise they could slip into a coma never to reawaken. 

He needed to stay awake. But that was assuming someone was coming for him. Which he doubted. The Lost Cottage looked even more lost than when he remembered it so many years previously. No one would be able to find it. No one would find him. His eyes dropped closed, tears falling to the floor. Just as he was slipping into unconsciousness he thought he heard familiar worried voices 

“Connor!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know if you find this chapter hard to follow. I kinda just started writing, didn't really edit much. I think i may need a beta
> 
> Please let me know if you like it, seriously.
> 
> Also, this is the house I was using as a reference
> 
> https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/gallery/inside-235k-abandoned-house-no-3006263


	8. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garcia finds a lead that brings them to the Omega captives. 
> 
> Connor gets rescued, finally

It was barely dawn when Garcia knocked on Hotch’s door. “Sir, I think I found something.”

A few moments later, the door opened and Hotch stepped out wearing only his undershirt and boxers, leaving the door cracked. “What is it Garcia?” Garcia blushed and concentrated on the case at hand.

“I started pulling up maps from the censuses going back to the 1950s. There are a few houses that simply fall off the map, see?” She showed him her computer where she had the 1950s map and the 2010 map side by side. She had circled about 5 properties that on the 1950s map that sure enough, were no longer there. 

“There are no records as to what these houses looked like, but one of them would be a perfect place to hide.” She continued. 

“Nice work. Any of them within 5 miles of the Krantz house?” Hotch asked. 

“Two,” She replied.

“Let’s start with those,” He said. “We need to get moving. Tell Abby to get her team up. We will meet in the lobby ready to go in 10 minutes.” He went back into his room and Garcia turned and quickly ran down the hall to greet the ladies. 

“JJ, Abby, we are meeting in the lobby in 10!” She said as she opened the door. The two girls were already awake and talking. Abby had a cup of tea in her hands (She was forever grateful for Cutter that she wasn’t stuck with the tea provided to them by the inn) and JJ was making faces at her coffee. 

“Brilliant,” Abby said with a smile. “There is more hot water for you if you want, Penelope, but we didn’t know what you wanted.”

“You get your choice, really bad coffee or decent breakfast tea,” JJ said with a smile. Garcia laughed.

“I think I will go with the tea.” she said, going over to the kettle and pouring herself a mug of hot water and dropping in a teabag. “Abby, Hotch asked if you could call Cutter and Becker and make sure they know to meet in the Lobby in 10, or rather,” she looked at the clock “6:30” it was 6:22. 

“Sure,” Abby said, “I’m pretty sure Cutter and Stephen will be there now if I told them we had somewhere to look.”

“Well, we have it narrowed down to 2 places. But yeah.” Garcia shrugged. 

Abby pulled out her phone and pressed a speed dial button. Almost immediately she was saying “Cutter? Yeah, Garcia has a lead… we are meeting in the lobby ready to go at 6:30. I’ll call Becker. OK.” 

“Already awake?” Garcia asked ruefully

She nodded. “I don’t think they slept that well last night

“I wouldn’t either if it was me.” JJ remarked. “Did you sleep? Honestly?”

“Not well.” She confessed. She hit another speed dial number on her phone. Again fairly quickly she was talking to the person on the other end. “Becker, we are meeting in the lobby ready to go at 6:30, we have a lead. They have takeaway cups! I thought you went to Sandhurst! Baby.” she hung up.

JJ sniggered as Abby rolled her eyes. “He said it wasn’t enough time for them to have tea. Someone needs to remind them that they are Special Forces, and that these are only people we are dealing with...”

“People can be monsters,” Garcia shivered at some of the crime scene photos she has had to see. 

“I don’t doubt that,” Abby said, nodding, “And I’m guessing the psychological and physical terror they can inflict can be gruesome. But when you track down and hunt actual living breathing dinosaurs for a living… a 6 foot human doesn’t scare you as much. They may be more clever, but most of the time they can’t swallow you whole, or release a deadly venom into you with a single bite.”

“You would be surprised…” JJ trailed off. “At least your dinosaurs can’t blow themselves up,”

“Fair point.” Abby mused

“And they can’t really hide, in plain sight that is…” Garcia added, “Most of our unsubs just look like regular people, dinosaurs look like, well, dinosaurs.”

“But dinosaurs aren’t the only things we have had come through.” Abby put in. “We had Dodo’s once, and a few were infected by a deadly parasite. Connor’s friend got infected by accident and he bit an x-ray tech and nearly got me before Connor talked him down. A bite is how they pass on the parasite.”

“We fight different monsters,” JJ asserted. “You fight the ones we are not equipped to deal with. Ones that stick to their base natures and possibly try to kill people.” 

“Fair.” Abby conceded. “Still, Becker deals with 8 ton dinos on a regular basis, grow up...” She grinned and looked at the clock. “We should head out. You lot done?” They nodded and followed her out the door. 

Nearly everyone was in the lobby already, waiting for instructions on where they were headed next. Hotch cleared his throat and 10 pairs of eyes looked at him. “Garcia has found some abandoned cottages in the area, we are going to go check them out. There are two within a 5 mile radius of the Krantz home, we are going to start with a recall mission only. We are sure that the house will be the one from the photo sent to Connor and is currently on his hard drive. We are going to send two people to each house to compare the photo to the real thing. Garcia, how far away are the houses?”

“10 miles and 15 miles sir,” 

“And from each other?”

“About 8 miles”

“Once we know which of the two houses it is, the pair will stay and wait for the rest of us. Do not, I mean, DO NOT, enter without backup.” He looked around. “Is that understood?” He stared straight at Becker who held his gaze intently before giving a fleeting nod. “Good, Becker, if you and one of your team check out one of the houses, Morgan, you and JJ can check out the other.” He looked at Morgan and JJ. They nodded. “The rest of us will hang back and wait for them to send a picture of the house so that Garcia can compare it to the reference photo we have, and go when we have a hit. I will alert DI Shipmann before we head out, and send her the address when we know which house it is, I will also tell her to bring medical. If things turn out well, all 4 Omegas will be returned by tonight.” Hotch looked around the room. “Everything clear?” he got nods. 

“Perfect Hair and Dark Chocolate, the addresses and directions have been sent to your phones.” Morgan looked at his phone and smiled

“Thanks Baby Girl.” He said with a smile. 

Seeing Becker not making any acknowledgement, JJ gave him a small elbow in the ribs. “She means you.” Becker looked startled. “Garcia gives everyone nicknames.” 

Becker blushed slightly. “I didn’t think anything could be worse than ‘Action Man’” 

Stephen laughed. “At least you aren’t ‘Mighty Hunter’” 

Becker rolled his eyes, “I may have preferred that, actually…”

“But you don’t hunt, do you?” Cutter asked

Abby leaned over to JJ, “Nicknames Connor has given them.” She chuckled. 

JJ smirked, “Garcia is gonna love Connor.”

“JJ!” Morgan called from the door, “Let’s go!” She waved and ran after him.  “John, with me.” Becker and one of the SFs also left the Lobby and hopped in a second car. Morgan and JJ already starting a first. 

Hotch had his phone out. “DI Shipmann? Yes, Agent Hotchner. Sorry to call so early. We have a lead in the case, two houses that have been written of the census. Yes. They are both within walking distance of his foster house. 5 miles. The unsub sent the victim a picture of the house we think he is using. I have scouts looking into both. I will let you know which one it is. Within the hour. 4. Yes. on standby.”

The remaining group stood waiting in a tense silence while they waited for an update. Minutes seemed to drag on, no one saying anything, the seven remaining adults barely breathing. Tension filled the air, making it nearly palpable. 

“AHH!!” Like an egg in a microwave, Abby finally exploded throwing back her head as the growl ripped through her throat, punctuated with a ferocious stamp of her foot, suddenly breaking the silence and ripping through the crushing pressure suffocating all the government agents. “Are they there yet?”

Garcia laughed and Hotch couldn’t stop a chuckle from escaping. “Waiting is the hardest part of the job,” he said sympathetically, seeming to understand. 

“Tell me about it,” Garcia rolled her eyes, “normally I’m back in Quantico they are doing this part, and I have to wait until my Chocolate Thunder calls to tell me that everything has gone ok. It’s torture.”

“You could always get certified and come with us,” Hotch said lightly, with a wink. 

“As appealing as that sounds,” Garcia said nervously, “I think I’m more useful in my cave, thanks, Bossman.” There was a buzz. “It’s JJ, she sent me a photo. Let me compare.” The group gathered around Garcia’s computer as she pulled up the photo that JJ sent her. Next to it she pulled up the image she had pulled from Connor’s computer. She stared at it, “It could be it, but I am not certain enough to know without running them through a program. Or Becker sends me a photo of the house he is at for comparison.”

“Run the program,” Hotch ordered. “We don’t know how long it will take Becker to get his photo to you.” Garcia nodded and started typing to manipulate the photos on her screen. They were from opposite sides of the house and the picture the unsub took was cropped so that they couldn’t see anything beyond the front wall which made it difficult to really compare the houses, but Garcia knew some tricks. The picture’s original form had also been thrown through a filter so that it’s colours were off, but Garcia easily changed it back to its original hue, she ran a colour recognition software on both the houses, matching them to a similar but not exact match, which was normal. She was able to run a size comparison on the windows and on their distance away from each other. In the photo, one of the windows was cut off, but one of them remained whole and able to be used as reference, and both were at least seen. 

“I am fairly certain it is the same house but I would like to wait for the photo from Becker to be sure.” She looked nervously at Hotch. “If that’s ok.” He gave a brief nod and they waited another few minutes and her phone buzzed again. She looked down at the photo. “It’s the one Morgan and JJ are at.” She said instantly. The photo she was sent showed a white washed house that stood abandoned on the edge of town. It had no foliage and was a single story cottage. The style was from somewhere in the late 18th century and it looked like it was about to fall in. Stephen and Nick raced towards the car. 

“Text Becker the address and directions of where we are going. Tell him we are meeting there. Tell Morgan to hold his position and stay hidden. We will be with him in a few minutes.” Hotch moved towards the cars, and everyone else followed him. “Garcia-”   


“Address and directions have been sent to your phone sir!” She said, finishing his thought. 

“Cutter, I’m driving,” He growled as he got to the car to see Nick in the driver’s seat. The Alpha Pack leaders locked eyes and glared at each other for a moment before Hotch reminded him, “You asked for our help, let us help.” He was as kind as he could be. Nick’s eyes softened and Hotch saw the pain and desperation behind them again. The professor gave a minute nod and moved over. Stephen, Abby and Garcia sat in the back and the two remaining SFs sat in the hatch of the truck, guns drawn across their lap.

Hotch pulled out of the motel parking lot and pulled out his phone, “DI Shipmann? Yes, we have the location. I will have my analyst send you the address. Meet you there.” He hung up the phone. “Garcia, send the address of the house to the Detective Inspector, please,” he said as they sped down the street towards their destination. He handed his phone to the professor. “The directions should be on there, in the messages, right or left?” 

Happy to be useful, Cutter directed the group to a small two story red brick cottage covered in vines. It was down the slope of a hill and they would have completely missed it if they hadn’t known what they were looking for. They saw an identical jeep to the one they were in down the street a little ways, and Hotch pulled up on the side of the road next to it. Everyone got out and they saw JJ and Morgan waiting by the car. 

“No movement, in or out.” Morgan reported. “At least from what we could see from here.”

“But then, most of the house is covered in ivy,” JJ continued, “So it could be that a whole lot is happening that we just can’t see.” 

“The Detective Inspector is on her way with medical and the police,” Hotch said, “Becker should be here momen-” He stopped as a third jeep pulled up next to theirs and Becker and one of the SFs got out. 

“Are we waiting for the local LEOs?” Morgan asked, “Or are we going?” 

“We still don’t have jurisdiction here, and Becker doesn’t have the power to arrest anyone, so I say we wait.” Hotch replied. “It shouldn’t be long.” 

“She knows not to use sirens, right?” JJ asked, nervously. 

“I never mentioned it…” Hotch trailed off, slightly nervous. He pulled out his phone and dialled a number quickly. “Shipmann, no sirens, I repeat, we are going in soft, so NO SIRENS!” They heard the hint of an approaching siren get shut off abruptly in the distance. The group of 11 looked nervously around. 

“That was an ambulance siren.” Abby observed. “Hopefully they won’t think anything’s wrong.” a moment later a detective’s car, three police cars, and four ambulances came to stop by where the Jeeps were parked, down the street from the house a bit. The paramedics got out of their ambulances and opened the backs, pulling out the stretchers and piling them high with medical supplies, the police officers got out of their cars, and gathered by the detective. DI Shipmann came over to Hotch and shook his hand.

“This is the place, huh?” She said. “How do you want to do this?” 

“If we are right,” Hotch started, “There is one mastermind and one follower, and then possibly many minions. Of course there will have been customers, but I think we found the house that they are entertained at yesterday. The Unsub, Tommy Krantz, is Omega, his Follower Julian Rutledge, is a Beta. The minions will all be Alpha who do things for the unsub in exchange for time with the victims. Be on high alert, we don’t know the number of Alphas they have on the premises, all we know is that they have at least 4 Omegas held against their will. DI Shipman, do you want to take the lead, or would you like us to? After all, it is your jurisdiction.”

She looked nervous. “None of us have ever dealt with a case this large, we are a fairly small town, so I think we may ask you lot to take the lead, if that’s all right.” He nodded. 

“Garcia, do you have a blueprint for the house?” He asked. 

“Sir, there is one entrance, two floors, and a storage shed on the right side.” She answered immediately. 

“Agent Morgan, Agent Jareau, Captain Becker, the Special Forces and I will go in with the anticipation of a large cohort to subdue. Once the floors are clear, the local PCs can start arresting our unsubs, and Agent Garcia, Ms Maitland and Agent Jareau will come to settle the remaining three Omega victims. Professor Cutter and Mr Hart, you enter with Agent Garcia, Agent Jareau and Ms Maitland.” Hotch looked around at the transatlantic crew around him. “Firearms are illegal in the UK, DI Shipman, what do you recommend we use in terms of subduing reckless unsubs?” He asked the Yorkshire Detective. 

“We normally use pepper spray, a taser, or a baton.” A young Police Constable spoke up from the crowd. Hotch nodded. “I also got you a warrant to search the premises” 

“Thank you for your help with that. Do you have any spare tasers or batons that we can borrow?” He asked looking at the team who were going in first. 

“We should have just enough.” She said nodding. “We each keep a spare taser and can of pepper spray in the boot. But we will need to lend you our Batons. Unfortunately since Detectives don’t carry them, two of you won’t have them.”

“That should be fine.” Hotch replied. “Team going in, please surrender all firearms, lock them in the Jeeps.” He took off his own gun, made sure the safety was on, and put it in the car. JJ and Morgan did the same. Becker and his SFs removed the straps of their weapons from their shoulders and placed them inside another jeep. They took the offerings the local LEOs offered. “DI Shipmann, I will let you know when the coast is clear.” The group moved flush around the side of the house with catlike grace, circling it to stay out of the view of the windows and slowed as they rounded to the front. 

Morgan and Hotch went around to the front first, Morgan kicked open the door, three Alpha’s jumped up off the floor, and there were hurried footsteps on the floor above. “Police!” Hotch and Morgan shouted at the same time, holding out their tasers in one hand and batons in another. “Stand down,” Morgan commanded as the Alphas drew knives from their belts. 

“JJ, Morgan, hold this room with some SFs, Becker, take the rest of your SFs and we are going up.” Becker moved to directly behind Hotch and they quickly and silently moved towards the rickety staircase. As they neared the second floor they saw shadows darting out at them and the brilliant glint of metal. Hotch dodged and shot his taser, hitting the shadow directly in the torso, making it keel over instantly. Becker, right behind him, shot the second shadow and the electricity that coursed through it caused it to trip over the first and tumble down the stairs past the Captain, who quickly moved to the side. They got to the second floor without any more fuss, and found a room with three walls around it, the last one blocking the inside of the room from being seen on the stairs. The floor was empty, besides the two that had already been dealt with. Hotch and Becker walked around the wall to investigate the interior of the room and Becker couldn’t help but gasp at what he saw. 

“Connor!”

The room was small, no more than 10ft by 10ft, and in the center was a small thin padded table just big enough for the torso of a small man. Such as the one who was currently lying on it. The brunette was facing away from them, his legs and arms strapped to the legs of the table he was on, he was covered in blood and cum and he was unconscious. He also had a large plug in his arse. Becker didn’t need to see his face to recognise the man. While he recognised a few of the scars on his legs and back, he was horrified by the fresh wounds made on his friend. 

“Anyone have a jacket, or extra shirt, or coat, or blanket or anything?” Becker asked his men who had stayed on the stairs. 

Hotch silently took off his coat and laid it over Connor’s still form. He and Becker got to work releasing from his binds, but didn’t want to risk moving him from where he lay. “He is still in Heat, As Alphas, it’s dangerous for us to be near him,” Hotch said, turning to go. He picked up the unconscious form of the man he had tazed and brought him down the stairs. Becker took one more look at his friend and followed the agent. 

When they got downstairs they found that the PCs had cuffed the three Alphas and the man that had fallen, who turned out to be Julian Rutledge. The one that was brought down the stairs was another Alpha. Hotch turned to one of the cuffed Alphas who was awake. “Where is Tommy Krantz?” He asked harshly. 

“What’s it to ya, American? Go back to the colonies and leave us alone.” He huffed. 

Hotch stepped forward and stared down at him, he radiated power. “Where Is Tommy?” He asked again.

Morgan walked around to stare at the man. “He leave you guys here to watch the fort while he goes home for beauty rest, is that it? He let’s you fuck an Omega and you bend down and call him master? Are you so desperate for a fuck that you, an Alpha, would be willing to serve an Omega?” The Alpha blushed and looked furious. “He doesn’t pay you, right? No, he wouldn’t. But he would allow you to sleep with his property. As long as you do what he says. Which is what, babysit his pups while he’s away? Scare away the other Alphas that are too rough?” 

“Where is he?” Hotch said again

The Alpha looked at the floor, eyes hard. “He took the pups to his brother’s place in Sheffield…” 

He turned to the PC, “Take him.” The Alphas were taken out of the run-down cottage. “Have we found the other victims yet?” He asked his team

“Sir…” JJ said, pointing to a door like opening leading to a small storage area. Three small cages were shoved inside unceremoniously, within were the missing Omegas, their bodies contorting strangely to fit the small cages. There was an empty cage open outside the storage area, no doubt where their final victim, who was now upstairs, had been. 

“JJ, can you talk to them and tell them that we are here to help?” Hotch asked. “I’m going to see if we can get something to open the cages and bring in Hart and Cutter, along with the paramedics.” He left the building and went around to where everyone else was waiting. “All clear.” He called over. Nick and Stephen rushed inside, Abby close on their heels. Hotch went to the paramedics, “We are working to get the other victims out currently, either way, we will need extra blankets.” 

“We each have a few,” Said one of the paramedics, handing over two, 

“One of the victims is on the second floor, but the staircase is unstable, I don’t know if the stretcher will be able to get up there.” Hotch continued. One of the pairs nodded and added a stiff board to their rolling bed. The other three pairs were already heading to the house. 

With the help of one of the Beta SFs JJ had managed to pull the cages from their hole, she had also managed to pick the locks on the cages. She decided she didn’t want to do anything more until help from the paramedics arrived. She and Garcia just stood by the Omegas, talking to them softly and telling them that everything would be ok.

Stephen, Nick and Abby ran upstairs and found Connor where Becker and Hotch had left him, with Hotch’s coat draped over him, still unconscious, pools of blood gathering below the table. 

“Cutter!” Hotch shouted, Nick turned around and Hotch tossed a few blankets his way. Cutter caught them and opened one up, giving the other to Stephen. Stephen pulled off the coat and before anyone could see anything more on Connor’s body besides a few whip marks, Nick had wrapped the blanket over him and gathered him up in his arms, pulling him off of the table where he lay. There was a soft moan that turned into a hacking cough and Connor’s head rested on Nick’s chest 

“Connor,” Abby said, gently wiping his tear streaked face. 

“Nick,” Stephen said quietly as Nick sat and lay Connor on his lap. Nick looked at him and nodded. 

“I know,” He said with a face bordering on fury and concern. 

“Abby, would you give us a moment?” Stephen said gently to the girl. She looked at him and saw the look on his face. Gentle and kind, but angry, sad, and upset all at once. She nodded and went back down the rickety staircase. Stephen knelt over the unconscious form in Nick’s arms and looked at the man holding him. Together they gently opened the boy’s legs enough that Stephen was able to pull out the plug with as little difficulty as possible. Connor’s breathing sounded shallow and laboured as Nick held him close to his chest. He coughed every so often, The plug was far larger than necessary which made the task difficult. He wiggled and maneuvered, pulled and wrestled until finally the plug easily slid out of the small Omega. White liquid followed. Stephen met Nick’s eyes again and they shared a look of rage. 

“Stephen, I will need to take that into evidence, if you don’t mind,” Hotch said, Nick and Stephen both looked up, startled. Hotch held two bags in one hand and a box of tissues out with the other. “You really should have taken that out with gloves, but, as you are his mates, I will overlook it.” Stephen glared at the agent, but took the things offered to him. He dropped the plug in one and looked at the other. Then at the tissues. He sighed. 

“Let’s get you cleaned up, Connor,” he said softly, knowing full well that the young man couldn’t hear him. Using the tissues he wiped up the leaking cum, currently running down the boy’s exposed arse. Then he used his fingers to gently scrape out the remains of the experience in the cottage. As he worked, he methodically cleaned his fingers and the small bum with the tissues, and dropped the used pieces of paper into the bag that was given to him. Connor squirmed slightly at the touch while Nick rubbed circles on his back as he whispered sweet words of comfort, wincing every time the small Omega’s body wracked with coughs. 

“We need to get him out of here.” Nick said suddenly. “Now, Stephen.” Stephen had just about finished when Nick spoke. The older Alpha had been watching the boy’s face. He had stopped moving, and he was white as a sheet, a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. Nick’s shirt was splattered with blood where Connor had been coughing against it. Stephen looked at Connor’s face and Nick’s shirt and registered what was going on. He quickly unfolded the other blanket and wrapped it too around the boy, noticing for the first time the red that was staining the first blanket. 

“Shit,” Stephen cursed. He got up and took Connor from Nick, practically running down the stairs with him. Three of the stretchers were gone, one was there waiting. Stephen lay Connor down in the stretcher and the paramedics started to examine him. For the first time Stephen saw the open wounds that looked like stab marks from a knife all over his torso. They had been lightly cauterized but were still bleeding. 

“Heart rate thready, oxygen levels low, breathing laboured and wet, blood loss evident, lacerations on the back, deep incisions on the front and body temperature low.” said one of the paramedics as she started going around taking Connor’s pulse, temperature, listening to his breathing, measuring his oxygen levels, studying the level of trauma he had sustained and reading it out to her partner with the clipboard. They pulled up the stretcher and quickly made their way to the ambulance. Stephen and Nick followed suit. Once at the car they quickly bandaged the stab wounds and something on Connor’s lower back, that neither mate saw. They put an oxygen mask on him and wrapped him tighter in the blankets. They buckled him in and pulled him up into the van. 

“We are his mates,” Stephen and Nick said. The paramedics looked at them. 

“We can take one of you, the other one will have to meet us there.” Said one of them, the one who had examined him. 

“I’m his medical proxy,” Nick said, “I’ll go,” He looked at Stephen with an apologetic look. “Meet you there.” He gave the other Alpha a kiss before jumping in the ambulance with Connor and the Paramedic. Stephen looked worried. Abby came up to stand beside him as the emergency vehicle carrying his mates took off, and put her hand on his arm. 

“Come on Stephen, we will meet them there.” She said, pulling him towards the Jeeps. 


End file.
